AUTHOR=St-Cyr Sophie , McGowan Patrick O. TITLE=Programming of stress-related behavior and epigenetic neural gene regulation in mice offspring through maternal exposure to predator odor JOURNAL=Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience VOLUME=9 YEAR=2015 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/behavioral-neuroscience/articles/10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00145 DOI=10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00145 ISSN=1662-5153 ABSTRACT=
Perinatal stress mediated through the mother can lead to long-term alterations in stress-related phenotypes in offspring. The capacity for adaptation to adversity in early life depends in part on the life history of the animal. This study was designed to examine the behavioral and neural response in adult offspring to prenatal exposure to predator odor: an ethologically-relevant psychological stressor. Pregnant mice were exposed daily to predator odors or distilled water control over the second half of the pregnancy. Predator odor exposure lead to a transient decrease in maternal care in the mothers. As adults, the offspring of predator odor-exposed mothers showed increased anti-predator behavior, a predator-odor induced decrease in activity and, in female offspring, an increased corticosterone (CORT) response to predator odor exposure. We found a highly specific response among stress-related genes within limbic brain regions. Transcript abundance of Corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor 1 (