Maternal infection during pregnancy aggravates the behavioral response to an immune challenge during adolescence in female rats

Cyprien G.J. Guerrin, Erik F.J. de Vries, Kavya Prasad, Daniel A. Vazquez-Matias, Lesley E. Manusiwa, Lara Barazzuol, Janine Doorduin
Behavioural Brain Research. 2023-08-01; 452: 114566
DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2023.114566

1. Behav Brain Res. 2023 Aug 24;452:114566. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2023.114566. Epub
2023 Jul 5.

Maternal infection during pregnancy aggravates the behavioral response to an
immune challenge during adolescence in female rats.

Guerrin CGJ(1), de Vries EFJ(1), Prasad K(1), Vazquez-Matias DA(1), Manusiwa
LE(1), Barazzuol L(2), Doorduin J(3).

Author information:
(1)Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, University Medical
Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Hanzeplein 1, Groningen 9713 GZ, the
Netherlands.
(2)Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Groningen, University Medical
Center Groningen, Hanzeplein 1, Groningen 9713 GZ, the Netherlands; Department
of Biomedical Sciences of Cells and Systems, University of Groningen, University
Medical Center Groningen, Hanzeplein 1, Groningen 9713 GZ, the Netherlands.
(3)Department of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, University Medical
Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Hanzeplein 1, Groningen 9713 GZ, the
Netherlands. Electronic address: .

Prenatal and early postnatal infection have been associated with changes in
microglial activity and the development of psychiatric disorders. Here, we
investigated the effect of prenatal immune activation and postnatal immune
challenge, alone and combined, on behavior and microglial cell density in female
Wistar rats. Pregnant rats were injected with poly I:C to induce a maternal
immune activation (MIA). Their female offspring were subsequently exposed to a
lipopolysaccharide (LPS) immune challenge during adolescence. Anhedonia, social
behavior, anxiety, locomotion, and working memory were measured with the sucrose
preference, social interaction, open field, elevated-plus maze, and Y-maze test,
respectively. Microglia cell density was quantified by counting the number of
Iba-1 positive cells in the brain cortex. Female MIA offspring were more
susceptible to the LPS immune challenge during adolescence than control
offspring as demonstrated by a more pronounced reduction in sucrose preference
and body weight on the days following the LPS immune challenge. Furthermore,
only the rats exposed to both MIA and LPS showed long-lasting changes in social
behavior and locomotion. Conversely, the combination MIA and LPS prevented the
anxiety induced by MIA alone during adulthood. MIA, LPS, or their combination
did not change microglial cell density in the parietal and frontal cortex of
adult rats. The results of our study suggest that the maternal immune activation
during pregnancy aggravates the response to an immune challenge during
adolescence in female rats.

DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2023.114566
PMID: 37419332 [Indexed for MEDLINE]

Conflict of interest statement: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors
declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal
relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this
paper.