Influence of postnatal maternal stress on blood pressure and heart rate of juvenile and adult rat offspring

✍ Scribed by Elliott Mills; Joseph W. Bruckert; Peter G. Smith

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 578 KB
• Volume: 23
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0012-1630
• DOI: 10.1002/dev.420230806

✦ Synopsis

Autonomic control of blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) was tested in offspring of rat dams that were unmanipulated (controls) or exposed repeatedly to either ( I ) Postnatal restraint, (2) Postnatal S.C. injections of alkaline saline, or (3) Prenatal S.C. alkaline saline. Under urethane anesthesia, BP was higher than control in 20-day-old offspring of restrained dams and lower at 80 days. The magnitude of the BP response to autonomic ganglionic blockade (chlorisondamine) changed in parallel; the control HR accelerator response was reversed at 20 days and enhanced at 80 days. Postnatal maternal injections increased BP in 20-day-old offspring and lowered it at 80 days. The BP response to blockade was unchanged; HR acceleration was attenuated at 20 days and increased at 80 days. N o influence of Prenarul maternal injections was seen in adult offspring. Conclusion: Post-not prenatal maternal stress disrupts BP and HR control in rat offspring; disruption is greater after restraint than injection. There is sympathetic hyperactivity in preweanlings and hypoactivity in adults.

Exposure of the rat to drugs or hormones in utero or via nursing can alter the postnatal development of the sympathetic nervous system (see for example Lau &