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Testosterone is involved in mediating the effects of prenatal stress in male guinea pig offspring
Author(s) -
Kapoor Amita,
Matthews Stephen G.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
the journal of physiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.802
H-Index - 240
eISSN - 1469-7793
pISSN - 0022-3751
DOI - 10.1113/jphysiol.2010.200543
Subject(s) - testosterone (patch) , offspring , endocrine system , endocrinology , prenatal stress , medicine , basal (medicine) , gestation , pregnancy , anxiety , guinea pig , chronic stress , physiology , psychology , hormone , biology , psychiatry , insulin , genetics
Non‐technical summary Studies in humans have demonstrated a link between stress during pregnancy and altered behaviour and stress reactivity in children. In guinea pigs, we have previously shown that a short period of maternal stress during gestation leads to increased anxiety, elevated basal cortisol levels and decreased testosterone levels in adult males. We hypothesized that restoring testosterone to normal levels in the adult males born to prenatally stressed mothers would reverse the changes in behaviours and endocrine function. We found differences in attention and anxiety‐related behaviours and basal stress endocrine activity between the prenatally stressed and control males. Administration of testosterone reversed the behavioural differences in the prenatally stressed offspring. There was, however, little effect of postnatal testosterone administration on stress‐related endocrine activity. This study provides new information to begin to address the mechanism underlying the interplay between prenatal stress, gonadal steroids and postnatal behaviours.