Pregnancy at Advanced Maternal Age Affects Behavior and Hippocampal Gene Expression in Mouse Offspring.
J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci
; 72(11): 1465-1473, 2017 Oct 12.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-28329103
ABSTRACT
There is growing evidence that advanced maternal age is a risk factor for neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders in offspring. However, it remains unclear whether the altered brain programming induced by advanced maternal age is mediated by pre- or postnatal factors. Here, a mouse model was used to investigate whether pregnancy at advanced age may provoke behavioral and brain gene expression changes in offspring. Swiss Albino mice conceived by 3-month-old males and either 15-18-month-old (n = 11) or 3-month-old control females (n = 5), were delivered by cesarean section, fostered after birth by 3-month-old dams and subjected to a battery of behavioral tests. Furthermore, genome-wide mRNA expression was analyzed in the hippocampi of 4-month-old males offspring using microarrays. Offspring conceived by old mothers exhibited increased ultrasound vocalization activity during separation from the foster mother, increased anxiety-like behaviors in adult life, and altered patterns of hippocampal gene expression, compared to controls. These effects were not reversed by the postnatal maternal care provided by the young foster mothers, suggesting that the altered brain programming is already established at birth, consistent with prenatal effects related to maternal aging.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Anxiety
/
Stress, Psychological
/
Behavior, Animal
/
Pregnancy, Animal
/
RNA, Messenger
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Gene Expression Regulation, Developmental
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Hippocampus
Type of study:
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Animals
/
Pregnancy
Language:
En
Journal:
J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci
Journal subject:
GERIATRIA
Year:
2017
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country: