Changes of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in the hippocampus caused by prenatal stress induce depression-and anxiety-like behaviors in rats
ZHANG Yurong
WANG Ruizhong
CHEN Rui
WANG Li
Abstract：Objective To explore the pathogenic role of changes of Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in the hippocampus in depression-and anxiety-like behaviors caused by prenatal stress (PS) in offspring rats.Methods Twelve female SpragueDawley rats weighing 240-260 g were randomly divided into control and restraint stress groups.The rats in the control group received no interventions, and those in restraint stress group were subjected to restraint stress (three times a day, 45 min each time) at the gestational age of 14-20 days.The 1-month-old offspring rats underwent open field test and forced swimming test to assess the anxiety-and depression-like behaviors, and the expressions of Wnt1, Gsk-3β and β-catenin in the hippocampus were detected using Western blotting.Results In open field test, the offspring rats with PS showed significantly decreased crossings of the center (P＜0.01) with reduced time spent in the center (P＜0.05) compared with control offspring rats.In forced swimming test, the offspring rats in PS group exhibited a significantly longer immobility time than in the control rats, and showed obvious depression-and anxiety-like behaviors.Compared with those in the control offspring rats, Gsk-3β expression increased significantly while the expressions of β-catenin and Wnt1 were significantly lowered in the hippocampus of the offspring rats in PS group (P＜0.01).Conclusion PS causes changes in Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway in the hippocampus to contribute to the occurrence of depression-and anxiety-like behaviors in rats.
Keywords：prenatal stressoffspring ratshippocampusglycogen synthase kinase 3β-catenin
Publication Date：2019-01-01
Online Publishing Date：2025-08-15(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：5( 222-226 )