Effects of parturition on immediate early gene protein expression within the brains of female rats

Neuroscience
N SalmasoB Woodside

Abstract

The mother-infant interaction that occurs immediately postpartum period has important consequences including changes in protein expression in the astrocytes within cingulate cortex area 2 (Cg2). Because increased expression of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) has been associated with increased neuronal activity we used immediate early gene expression to evaluate the effects of parturition plus interaction with pups during and immediately after delivery to investigate patterns of neural activation in a number of brain areas including Cg2. In the first experiment, we compared levels of immunoreactivity of two immediate early genes: c-Fos and egr-1, among three groups of animals: Cycling, Late Pregnant, and rats perfused 1.5 h postpartum. The average number of Fos and egr-1-ir cells/section were calculated for the Parietal Cortex (ParCx), nucleus accumbens (NAc), medial amygdala (MEA), medial preoptic area (MPOA), supraoptic area (SON) and Cg2. In a second experiment, Fos-ir induction was compared between cycling rats and rats at hour 3 postpartum. Contrary to our hypothesis no changes in expression of either immediate early gene were observed in Cg2. In Experiment 1 however, an upre...Continue Reading

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Feb 10, 2009·The European Journal of Neuroscience·N SalmasoB Woodside

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