Effect of maternal variable stress on oxidative status and glucose metabolism in pubertal male rats

Metabolic disorders are affected by negative stress experiences in the early stages of life. Accordingly, in this study, the effects of stress during pregnancy on oxidative status and glucose homeostasis in pubertal male Wistar rats were investigated.

After pregnancy, female rats (200±30 g) were divided into 2 groups (6 rats per group) of stress and non-stress. Animals in the stress group received variable stress from the fourteenth day to the end of pregnancy. At the end of stress procedure (on the 22nd day of pregnancy), blood was taken from the tail of the dam and the plasma concentration of corticosterone was determined. Blood samples were also collected from male offspring of each group (6 rats per group), at 45 days of age, to measure plasma concentrations of corticosterone, malondialdehyde (MDA), glucose, and insulin, moreover HOMA-IR (an insulin resistance index) was calculated.

Stress during pregnancy increased the plasma concentrations of corticosterone in the dam and the pubertal offspring of these dams. Moreover, in these offspring, the plasma concentration of MDA increased, while without observing any change in plasma glucose concentration, plasma insulin concentration, HOMA-IR index, and food intake and body weight decreased.

Our findings indicate that stress during pregnancy increased plasma corticosterone concentration and induced oxidative stress, which followed by decreased plasma insulin concentration in pubertal male offspring. Conspicuously, it is possible that the increase in plasma levels of corticosterone of dam, via changing the embryonic neuroendocrine, oxidative, and metabolic systems, induces these impairments.