THE EFFECTS OF STRESS ON PLASMA ACTH AND CORTICOSTERONE IN YOUNG AND AGING PREGNANT RATS AND THEIR FETUSES
THE EFFECTS OF STRESS ON PLASMA ACTH AND CORTICOSTERONE IN YOUNG AND AGING PREGNANT RATS AND THEIR FETUSES
复制标题
DOI：
10.1016/0024-3205(90)90181-p
复制
发表时间：
1990-01-01
期刊：
影响因子：
6.1
通讯作者：
LENT, SJ
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
ERISMAN, S;CARNES, M;LENT, SJ
Compared to younger rats, old rats exhibit prolonged elevations of plasma ACTH and corticosterone (CORT) in response to stress. In addition, CORT crosses the placenta. To investigate whether fetuses of older rats may be exposed to higher concentrations of CORT during development than fetuses of young rats, we compared the effects of stress on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function in young and aging pregnant rats and their 19-day-old fetuses. The plasma of the mothers and fetuses was assayed for ACTH and CORT by radioimmunassay. Both young and aging pregnant rats showed a significant increase in plasma ACTH and CORT immediately after exposure to stress. However, aging rats had more prolonged elevations of ACTH and CORT than young rats. This suggests that, like old male rats, aging pregnant rats have an alteration in feedback inhibition of the HPA axis. Prolonged elevation of CORT was also seen in fetuses of aging mothers. These results have important implications concerning the effects of stress during pregnancy at different maternal ages, and for the potential deleterious consequences of prolonged prenatal elevation in stress hormones on the offspring of aging females.
