Epigenetic mechanisms linking maternal immune activation-induced transcriptional changes to adult behavioural impairment in a neurodevelopmental rat m

了解疾病机制并因此改进治疗的一个基本未知因素是，在关键发育时期所经历的压力源如何影响成人疾病的发生或“编程”（Estes & McAllister 2016）。特别是，怀孕期间经历的压力源可能会增加后代在一生中出现认知障碍的可能性（knnuesel et al. 2014）。这是由于直接影响子宫内大脑发育的变化、母亲护理行为的改变、青少年大脑发育还是这些因素的结合，目前尚不清楚，支持受影响特征的机制途径仍不明确。

A fundamental unknown in understanding mechanisms of disease, and therefore improving therapy, is how stressors experienced during critical developmental periods influence the genesis or 'programming' of adult disease (Estes & McAllister 2016). In particular, stressors experienced during pregnancy may increase the likelihood of offspring developing cognitive disorders across their lifespan (Knuesel et al. 2014). Whether this is due to changes directly affecting brain development in utero, altered maternal care behaviour, adolescent brain development or a combination of these, is unclear, and the mechanistic pathways underpinning affected traits remain poorly defined.