Effects of maternal stress and postnatal fluoxetine exposure on affective-like behaviors and hippocampal cell proliferation in adolescent rats

Abstract

Postpartum depression (PPD) is a growing health problem, which affects 15% of women worldwide. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRIs) medications are used for treatment of PPD. Although there is little research on the effect of maternal depression and perinatal SSRI exposure on adolescent offspring development. This study determines how postnatal maternal fluoxetine exposure affects neurobehavioral outcomes in adolescent offspring exposed to maternal stress. Adolescent offspring were tested to assess anxiety- and depressive-like behaviors and brains were analyzed for levels of cell proliferation in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. Results show that maternal fluoxetine increases depressive-like behavior in adolescent offspring exposed to maternal stress but has no effect in non-stressed offspring. Postnatal fluoxetine exposure increases hippocampal cell proliferation partially in adolescent offspring exposed to maternal stress, but decreases it in non-stressed offspring. Th