Jessica L Bradshaw, E Nicole Wilson, Jennifer J Gardner, Steve Mabry, Selina M Tucker, Nataliya Rybalchenko, Edward Vera, Styliani Goulopoulou, Rebecca L Cunningham
Pregnancy is associated with neural and behavioral plasticity, systemic inflammation, and oxidative stress. Yet, the impact of inflammation and oxidative stress on maternal neural and behavioral plasticity during pregnancy are unclear. We hypothesized that healthy pregnancy transiently reduces learning and memory, and these deficits are associated with pregnancy-induced elevations in inflammation and oxidative stress. Cognitive performance was tested using novel object recognition (recollective memory), Morris water maze (spatial memory), and open field (anxiety-like) behavior tasks in female Sprague-Dawley rats of varying reproductive states [non-pregnant (nulliparous), pregnant (near term), and 1-2 months post-pregnancy (primiparous); n = 7-8/group]...
May 6, 2024: American Journal of Physiology. Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology