Plasticity in the olfactory bulb of the maternal mouse is prevented by gestational stress.
Sci Rep. 2016-11-25; 6(1):
DOI: 10.1038/srep37615
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1. Sci Rep. 2016 Nov 25;6:37615. doi: 10.1038/srep37615.
Plasticity in the olfactory bulb of the maternal mouse is prevented by
gestational stress.
Belnoue L(1)(2), Malvaut S(1)(2), Ladevèze E(1)(2), Abrous DN(1)(2), Koehl
M(1)(2).
Author information:
(1)INSERM U1215, Magendie Neurocenter, Neurogenesis and Pathophysiology group,
146 rue Léo Saignat, Bordeaux-33077, France.
(2)Université de Bordeaux, Bordeaux-33077, France.
Maternal stress is associated with an altered mother-infant relationship that
endangers offspring development, leading to emotional/behavioral problems.
However, little research has investigated the stress-induced alterations of the
maternal brain that could underlie such a disruption of mother-infant bonding.
Olfactory cues play an extensive role in the coordination of mother-infant
interactions, suggesting that motherhood may be associated to enhanced olfactory
performances, and that this effect may be abolished by maternal stress. To test
this hypothesis, we analyzed the impact of motherhood under normal conditions or
after gestational stress on olfactory functions in C57BL/6 J mice. We report that
gestational stress alters maternal behavior and prevents both mothers’ ability to
discriminate pup odors and motherhood-induced enhancement in odor memory. We
investigated adult bulbar neurogenesis as a potential mechanism of the enhanced
olfactory function in mothers and found that motherhood was associated with an
increased complexity of the dendritic tree of newborn neurons. This
motherhood-evoked remodeling was totally prevented by gestational stress.
Altogether, our results may thus provide insight into the neural changes that
could contribute to altered maternal behavior in stressed mothers.
DOI: 10.1038/srep37615
PMCID: PMC5122868
PMID: 27886228 [Indexed for MEDLINE]