Experimental Manipulations Blunt Modifications to Changes in Brain Monoamine Levels Associated with Time Alone and Completely Reverse Stress, but not by Pb+/-Stress Related Modifications to These Trajectories

CORY-SLECHTA, D.A.; VIRGOLINI, M.B.; ROSSI-GEORGE, A; WESTON, D.D.; THIRUCHELVAM, M

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Año: 2009 vol. 201 p. 76 - 76

This study sought to further understand how environmental conditions influence the outcomes of early developmental insults. It compared changes in monoamine levels in frontal cortex, nucleus accumbens and striatum of male and female Long-Evans rat offspring subjected to maternal Pbexposure (0, 50 or 150 ppm in drinking water from 2 mos pre-breeding until pup weaning) +/- prenatal (PS) (restraint on GD16-17) or PS + offspring stress (OS; 3 variable stress challenges to young adults) determined at 2 mos of age and at 6 mos of age in littermates subsequently exposed either to experimental manipulations (EM: daily handling and performance on an operant fixed interval (FI) schedule of food reward), or to no experience (NEM; time alone). Time alone (NEM conditions), even in normal (control) animals, modified the trajectory of neurochemical changes between 2 and 6 mos across brain regions and monoamines. EM significantly modified the NEM trajectories, and except NE and striatal