Perinatal exposure to venlafaxine leads to lower anxiety and depression-like behavior in the adult rat offspring.

Depression during pregnancy and in the post-partum period is a growing health issue. Venlafaxine, a representative of serotonin and noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors, is used to treat a wide spectrum of mood disorders. However, the limited number of prenatal and perinatal studies raises the question about the long-term consequences of venlafaxine therapy. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of venlafaxine exposure during pregnancy and lactation on anxiety-like and depression-like behaviors, as well as adrenocortical hormone concentrations in the adult rat offspring. For this purpose, rat dams were treated orally with venlafaxine from day 15 of gestation to postnatal day 20 at doses of 7.5, 37.5, and 75 mg/kg. Administration of venlafaxine during gestation and lactation affected anxiety-like and depression-like behaviors in adult rat offspring of both sexes. The animals exposed through their mothers to venlafaxine, particularly at the lowest and middle doses, were less anxious and less depressive in several relevant behavioral tests, which can be considered a deviation from the normal state. At clinically relevant doses, venlafaxine did not alter circulating level of corticosterone and aldosterone in the adult offspring. In general, the consequences of venlafaxine were dose dependent and more apparent in females. Together, these results suggest that prenatal and early postnatal exposure to venlafaxine may interfere with functional development of the brain, though not necessarily in a negative way.

Effects of venlafaxine and chronic unpredictable stress on behavior and hippocampal neurogenesis of rat dams.

OBJECTIVE: Epidemiological studies strongly support the theory that stressful life events play an important role in the etiology of depression. The mechanism of chronic stress induced depression involves a number of systems. Chronic stress represents a serious health issue especially during pregnancy and lactation. In this sensitive period, stress can lead to changes in emotion and cognitive behavior both of the mothers and the offspring. It is thus necessary to properly manage stress events during gestation. Venlafaxine belongs to the group of serotonin and noradrenaline re-uptake inhibitor drugs. It is used for the treatment of depression, anxiety disorders and other mood disorders. During pregnancy, however, the use of venlafaxine is questionable due to the lack of experimental and clinical studies. Therefore the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of chronic unpredictable stress and/or venlafaxine treatment on maternal and open field behavior of dams. Moreover, hippocampal neurogenesis was investigated either. METHODS: Female Wistar rats were subjected to 2-week chronic unpredictable stress induced by random stressors and treated with venlafaxine orally at a dose of 5 mg/kg twice a day. Maternal behavior was evaluated within 5-min observations twice a day. Mothers were also tested in the open field 8 weeks after chronic unpredictable stress procedure in a single 15-min session. Hippocampal neurogenesis was investigated by immunohistochemistry essay using DCX staining. RESULTS: Results of the present study showed altered maternal and open field behavior of the dams. Stressed dams had lowered hippocampal neurogenesis, while venlafaxine treatment reversed this lowering. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that stress and antidepressant therapy can have significant impact on behavior and hippocampal neurogenesis in rat dams.

Chronic unpredictable mild stress paradigm in male Wistar rats: effect on anxiety- and depressive-like behavior.

OBJECTIVES: There are several models of depression. Chronic unpredictable mild stress (CMS) appears to have the greatest validity, although it is often being criticized for low reliability. METHODS: Male Wistar/DV rats were used in this study to assess our modified 2-week model of CMS as a combination of psychosocial, physical and metabolic stressors and to compare the effect of acute administration of venlafaxine (VFX) and diazepam (DZP), either in stress or no stress conditions. The animals were exposed to one particular stressor each day. The time of day and duration of the stressor differed across the procedure to avoid animals to adapt to the stress stimulus. After cessation of stress, the animals underwent the following behavioral tests to assess motor activity, cognition, anxiety- and depression-like behavior: Open field test, Elevated plus maze, Forced swim test, Stress-iduced hyperthermia, Light/dark test and Y maze. To assess hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) reactivity in our CMS model, plasma corticosterone levels were measured 24 h after termination of stress. RESULTS: Corticosterone levels were significantly increased compared to control values (p<0.05) in our experimental schedule of CMS. Our paradigm produced delayed anxiety-like behavior observed in Open field (decreased time spent in central zone 3 weeks after CMS, p<0.05), with anxiolytic effect of CMS shortly after its cessation. Stressed animals spent more time in the open arms of Elevated plus maze (p<0.05) and travelled longer distance in the light zone of the Light/dark box (p<0.01). CMS did not increase the behavioral despair analyzed in Forced swim test yet it disrupted the capacity of the Stress-induced hyperthermia test (CMS rats failed to react to the stress by increasing the core temperature). CONCLUSIONS: Based on our results, we can conclude that our CMS protocol leads to increased corticosterone levels as a result of HPA axis hyperactivity and produces delayed onset of anxiogenic behavior. Moreover, CMS exerted a substantial effect on the behavioral outputs, interfering with drug testing.

Mirtazapine modulates Glutamate and GABA levels in the animal model of maternal depression. MRI and 1H MRS study in female rats.

We aimed to determine, using in vivo magnetic resonance, whether maternal depression induced by chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) in the pre-gestational period in female rats would be evidenced by structural or neurometabolic changes in the hippocampal region of the brain. At the same time, appropriate behavioral tests were also administered after a relatively long two-month period of a stress paradigm. The objective of the study was not only to study an animal model of CUS using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H MRS) focused on the hippocampus, but also to use this technique to verify the effectiveness of mirtazapine antidepressant treatment. In the group with CUS, we found a significant decrease in the relative concentration of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA/tCr) and glutamate+glutamine (Glx/tCr) compared to the control group, while we did not observe any statistically significant change in hippocampal volumes. Moreover, the forced swim test revealed an increase in depression-like behavior. The most important finding was the return of GABA/tCr and Glx/tCr levels to control levels during mirtazapine treatment; however, behavioral tests did not demonstrate any effects from mirtazapine treatment. In vivo1H MRS confirmed mirtazapine modulation of CUS in an animal model more robustly than behavioral tests.

Sex- and age- dependent effect of pre-gestational chronic stress and mirtazapine treatment on neurobehavioral development of Wistar rat offspring.

Hormonal fluctuations, such as the perinatal period, may increase susceptibility of women to depression, which in turn exert a negative impact on child's neurodevelopment, becoming a risk factor in development of neuropsychiatric disorders. Moreover, the use of antidepressants during this critical period presents a serious health concern for both the mother and the child, due to the consequences of treatment in terms of the reliability and safety for the proper neurodevelopment of the organism being not well known. Atypical antidepressants, such as mirtazapine, that targets both serotonergic and noradrenergic systems in the central nervous system (CNS), represent a novel focus of research due to its unique pharmacological profile. The aim of this work was to study the effects of maternal depression and/or perinatal antidepressant mirtazapine treatment on the neurobehavioral development of the offspring. Pre-gestationally chronically stressed or non-stressed Wistar rat dams were treated with either mirtazapine (10 mg/kg/day) or vehicle during pregnancy and lactation followed by analysis of offspring's behavior at juvenile and adolescent age. We found mirtazapine induced significant alterations of nursing behavior. In offspring, pregestational stress (PS) had an anxiogenic effect on adolescent males (p≤0.05) and increased their active behavior in forced swim test (p≤0.01). Interaction between pregestational stress and mirtazapine treatment variously induced anxiolytic changes of juvenile (p≤0.05) and adolescent (p≤0.05) females and impairment of spatial memory (p≤0.01) in adolescent females as well. Hippocampal density of synaptophysin, pre-synaptic protein marker, was decreased mainly by mirtazapine treatment. In conclusion, our results show mirtazapine induced significant alterations in maternal behavior and several sex- and age-dependent changes in neurobehavioral development of offspring caused by both prenatal mirtazapine treatment and/or chronic pregestational stress.

Long-term effects of pre-gestational stress and perinatal venlafaxine treatment on neurobehavioral development of female offspring.

Preclinical studies suggest that stress-related disorders even prior gestation can cause long-term changes at the level of neurobehavioral adaptations. Therefore, it is critical to consider undergoing antidepressant therapy which could reverse the negative consequences in the offspring. Venlafaxine is widely used in clinical practice; however insufficient amount of well-controlled studies verified the safety of venlafaxine therapy during gestation and lactation. The aim of this work was to investigate the effects of perinatal venlafaxine therapy on selected neurobehavioral variables in mothers and their female offspring using a model of maternal adversity. Pre-gestational stressed and non-stressed Wistar rat dams were treated with either venlafaxine (10 mg/kg/day) or vehicle during pregnancy and lactation. We have shown that pre-gestational stress decreased the number of pups with a significant reduction in the number of males but not females. Furthermore, we found that offspring of stressed and treated mothers exhibited anxiogenic behavior in juvenile and adolescent age. However, during adulthood pre-gestational stress significantly increased anxiety-like behavior of female, with venlafaxine treatment normalizing the state to control levels. Additionally, we found that even maternal stress prior gestation can have long-term impact on adult number of hippocampal immature neurons of the female offspring. A number of questions related to the best treatment options for maternal depression still remains, however present data may provide greater insight into the possible outcomes associated with perinatal venlafaxine therapy.

Pre-gestational stress impacts excitability of hippocampal cells in vitro and is associated with neurobehavioral alterations during adulthood.

Chronic stress during pregnancy or even prior to gestation can negatively affect offspring´s neurobehavioural development. Several studies have shown, that offspring who had experienced excessive stress during gestation had higher rates of cognitive and mood disorders later during adolescence or in adulthood. Hippocampal neurons play a crucial role in the regulation of behavior, mainly in anxiety-related behaviors and spatial learning and memory. Recently, it has been shown, that excessive stress even prior to gestation could interfere with sensitive developmental processes in the brain and may affect hippocampal functioning with severe neurobehavioural consequences in later life. The aim of this work was to investigate the effects of pre-gestational stress of the rat dams on the hippocampal excitability of the pups right after the birth. Neurobehavioural consequences of pre-gestational stress were analyzed during adolescence (35-40 postnatal days) and in early adulthood (75-80 postnatal days). We have shown that even pre-gestational chronic maternal stress increased resting membrane potential, suppressed depolarization-activated action potential firing, and increased spontaneous activity of hippocampal cells from newborn offspring. Altered function of hippocampus was reflected at the behavioural level. Adolescent male offspring of dams exposed stress prior to conception showed hyperactivity-like behaviour in a new stressful environment and increased anxiety-like behaviour during adulthood compared to adult males from non-stress group. Together, this work suggests, that chronic stress even prior to gestation can interfere with functional brain development of the offspring and can cause long-term behavioural changes at the level of neurobehavioural adaptations.

Risks of using SSRI / SNRI antidepressants during pregnancy and lactation.

At present, affective disorders are among the most commonly diagnosed mental diseases. In pregnancy, they can occur as pre-delivery depression, recurrent depressive disorder or postnatal depression. The estimated prevalence of depressive disorders in pregnancy is approximately 9-16%, with some statistics reporting up to 20%. Approximately 2-3% of pregnant women take antidepressants during pregnancy, and the number of mothers treated increases by birth to 5-7%. Treatment of depression during pregnancy and breastfeeding is a controversial issue, as antidepressants can negatively affect the developing fetus. According to epidemiological studies, the effects of treated depression in pregnancy are related to premature birth, decreased body weight of the child, intrauterine growth retardation, neonatal adaptive syndrome, and persistent pulmonary hypertension. However, untreated depression can adversely affect maternal health and increase the risk of preeclampsia and eclampsia, as well as of subsequent postnatal depression, which can lead to disruption of the mother-child relationship. Based on the above mentioned facts, the basic question arises as to whether or not to treat depression during pregnancy and lactation.

Animal models of maternal depression for monitoring neurodevelopmental changes occurring in dams and offspring.

Depression is one of the most prevalent and life-threatening forms of mental illness affecting about 20% of the population. Depressive disorder as a biochemical phenomenon, was first recognized in the mid-20th century of research, however the etiology of this disease is still not well understood. Although the need to investigate depressive disorders has emerged from the needs of clinical practice, there are many preclinical studies, which brought new insights into this field of research. During experimental work it was crucial to develop appropriate animal models, where the neurohumoral mechanism was similar to humans. In the past decades, several animal models of maternal depression have been developed. We describe the three most popular rodent models of maternal depression which are based on 1. stress prior to gestation, 2. prenatal stress and 3. early life stress. The above-mentioned animal models appear to fulfill many criteria for a relevant animal model of depression; they alter the regulation of the HPA, induce signs of depression-like behavior and several antidepressant treatments can reverse the state induced by maternal stress. Although, they are not able to model all aspects of maternal depression, they are useful models for monitoring neurodevelopmental changes occurring in dams and offspring.

Animal tests for anxiety-like and depression-like behavior in rats.

An animal model of human behavior represents a complex of cognitive and/or emotional processess, which are translated from animals to humans. A behavioral test is developed primarily and specifically to verify and support a theory of cognition or emotion; it can also be used to verify a theory of a psychopathology, but it is not developed for a particular type of psychopathology. The paper reviews tests commonly used in novel drug discovery research. Focus is especially on tests which can evaluate anxiety-like (openfield test, novelty suppressed feeding, elevated plus maze, light/dark box, stressinduced hyperthermia) and depression-like behaviors (forced swim test, tail suspension test, sucrose preference test) as they represent an important methodological tool in pre-clinical as well as in behavioral toxicology studies.