The Effect of Various Types of Mother Stress on the Some Components of the Brain Redox System in Male and Female Rats on the 20th Day of the Embryonic Development Period

The effect of prenatal stress, post-traumatic stress disorder, and their combined effect in rat mothers on the state of the pituitary-adrenal system and the brain redox balance in 20-day-old embryos was studied. Mother’s prenatal stress resulted in an increase the corticosterone level in the blood and a decrease in the level of reduced glutathione in the brain of male embryos. In female embryos, the level of Fenton-induced products of proteins oxidative modification increased and the reduced glutathione level in the brain decreased. Modeling of post-traumatic stress disorder in mother resulted in an increase in the corticosterone level in the blood, and a decrease in the level of Fenton-induced products of proteins oxidative modification in the brain of male embryos. In female embryos, the levels of products of spontaneous and Fenton-induced oxidative modifications of proteins in the brain increased. The combined effect of two types of stress in mother resulted in an increase in corticosterone levels in the blood, a decrease in the level of spontaneous oxidative products and an increase in the level of Fenton-induced products of protein oxidative modifications, and a decrease in the reduced glutathione level in the male embryos brain. In female embryos, all the studied indicators of proteins oxidative modification products in the brain increased. Thus, all three studied types of stress in the mother caused changes in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal system and in the brain redox balance in 20-day-old embryos. These changes are different in male and female embryos, and in most of the studied indicators, the pattern of differences is inverted in relation to the control group. These changes at embryos can result in negative changes in the neuronal organization in adult offspring of stressed rat mothers.