Epilepsy, a relatively common and chronic neurological condition, affects 1-2% of the
population. The underlying pathophysiology of epileptogenesis is not completely
understood. To identify potential antecedents to seizure, the effects of maternal stress and
environmental enrichment (EE) were investigated. Maternal stress was modeled by
exposing pregnant rats to a prenatal stress (PS; an ethologically relevant predatory threat).
At birth, PS and naïve control (NC) dams and litters were either maintained in standard
cages or transferred to EE until postnatal day (PD) 14. A model of febrile convulsions
(FC) was used to determine seizure susceptibility of all offspring. Pup brains were
processed for detection of FosB (FosB-ir) from structures in the limbic system and
corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH-ir) from the paraventricular nucleus of the
hypothalamus (PVN). Our results suggest pre- and postnatal dam-dependent effects. PS
increased glucocorticoid (GC) levels in dams and decreased pup birth-weights. Seizure
scores on PD14 were highly individualized and litter dependent, suggesting a dam-dependent
and variable effect of controlled pre- and postnatal factors. EE increased FosBir
within the hippocampus but, in other regions, EE decreased FosB-ir. EE also
significantly decreased CRH-ir in the PVN. Our results support the concept that both preand
postnatal environmental influences affect fetal programming and neurodevelopment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:NSHD.ca#10222/21774 |
| Date | 10 April 2013 |
| Creators | Korgan, Austin |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
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