Gestational intermittent hypoxia increases FosB‐immunoreactive perikaryas in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus of adult male (but not female) rats

Bibliographic Details
Title: Gestational intermittent hypoxia increases FosB‐immunoreactive perikaryas in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus of adult male (but not female) rats
Authors: Danuzia Ambrozio‐Marques, Marianne Gagnon, Abigail B. Radcliff, Armand L. Meza, Tracy L. Baker, Jyoti J. Watters, Richard Kinkead
Source: Experimental Physiology, Vol 108, Iss 11, Pp 1376-1385 (2023)
Publisher Information: Wiley, 2023.
Publication Year: 2023
Collection: LCC:Physiology
Subject Terms: cardiorespiratory control, development, intermittent hypoxia, stress, Physiology, QP1-981
More Details: Abstract Sleep‐disordered breathing is a respiratory disorder commonly experienced by pregnant women. The recurrent hypoxaemic events associated with sleep‐disordered breathing have deleterious consequences for the mother and fetus. Adult male (but not female) rats born to dams subjected to gestational intermittent hypoxia (GIH) have a higher resting blood pressure than control animals and show behavioural/neurodevelopmental disorders. The origin of this persistent, sex‐specific effect of GIH in offspring is unknown, but disruption of the neuroendocrine stress pathways is a key mechanism by which gestational stress increases disease risk in progeny. Using FosB immunolabelling as a chronic marker of neuronal activation, we determined whether GIH augments basal expression of FosB in the perikaryas of cells in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN), a key structure in the regulation of the stress response and blood pressure. From gestational day 10, female rats were subjected to GIH for 8 h/day (light phase) until the day before delivery (gestational day 21); GIH consisted of 2 min hypoxic bouts (10.5% O2) alternating with normoxia. Control rats were exposed to intermittent normoxia over the same period (GNX). At adulthood (10–15 weeks), the brains of male and female rats were harvested for FosB immunohistochemistry. In males, GIH augmented PVN FosB labelling density by 30%. Conversely, PVN FosB density in GIH females was 28% lower than that of GNX females. We conclude that GIH has persistent and sex‐specific impacts on the development of stress pathways, thereby offering a plausible mechanism by which GIH can disturb neural development and blood pressure homeostasis in adulthood.
Document Type: article
File Description: electronic resource
Language: English
ISSN: 1469-445X
0958-0670
Relation: https://doaj.org/toc/0958-0670; https://doaj.org/toc/1469-445X
DOI: 10.1113/EP091343
Access URL: https://doaj.org/article/f78afbf676ab4ca99b23fc67e10e655f
Accession Number: edsdoj.f78afbf676ab4ca99b23fc67e10e655f
Database: Directory of Open Access Journals
More Details
ISSN:1469445X
09580670
DOI:10.1113/EP091343
Published in:Experimental Physiology
Language:English