Male offspring of mothers stressed during pregnancy show feminized and demasculinized patterns of sexual behavior in adulthood. This so called Prenatal Stress Syndrome has been demonstrated in rats and mice, and may provide insight into intersexed behaviors shown by humans. The several objectives of the present research program include characterizing more completely in prenatally stressed male rats various sexual (e.g. ejaculation, lordosis) and nonsexual (e.g. adolescent play) behaviors known to be organized by exposure to androgens during perinatal life. Secondly, two aspects of the potential mechanism(s) mediating this syndrome will be investigated. The first will utilize radioimmunoassay to determine whether stressed males fail to experience the surge in plasma testosterone during the first hours of birth known to occur in controls. If they do not, critical neonatal factors will have to be considered as playing a causal role in this syndrome which currently is believed to result entirely from an abnormal hormonal milieu during fetal life. The possible involvement of endogenous opiates in the mediation of the Prenatal Stress Syndrome will be assessed by injecting stressed and control mothers with the opiate receptor blocker maltrexone. If stress-induced opiate release is involved then the abnormal adult behavioral and fetal testicular enzyme pattern(s) characteristic of prenatally stressed males should be prevented by pretreating mothers with naltrexone before administering gestational stress. An additional series of studies will investigate the extent to which prepuberal social factors interact with prenatal stress to determine adult sexual behavior potentials and will probe possible physiological mechanisms by which this interaction might be achieved. Finally, an attempt will be made to extend the Prenatal Stress Syndrome to the guinea pig, a laboratory species in which, like man but unlike the rat, sexual differentiation is completed during fetal ontogeny.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Scientist Award (K05)
Project #
5K05MH000049-14
Application #
3075516
Study Section
Research Scientist Development Review Committee (MHK)
Project Start
1980-07-01
Project End
1990-12-31
Budget Start
1989-01-01
Budget End
1989-12-31
Support Year
14
Fiscal Year
1989
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Villanova University
Department
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
City
Villanova University
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
19085
Ward, O B; Wexler, A M; Carlucci, J R et al. (1996) Critical periods of sensitivity of sexually dimorphic spinal nuclei to prenatal testosterone exposure in female rats. Horm Behav 30:407-15
Kerchner, M; Malsbury, C W; Ward, O B et al. (1995) Sexually dimorphic areas in the rat medial amygdala: resistance to the demasculinizing effect of prenatal stress. Brain Res 672:251-60
Melniczek, J R; Ward, I L (1994) Patterns of ano-genital licking mother rats exhibit toward prenatally stressed neonates. Physiol Behav 56:457-61
Kashon, M L; Ward, O B; Grisham, W et al. (1992) Prenatal beta-endorphin can modulate some aspects of sexual differentiation in rats. Behav Neurosci 106:555-62
Grisham, W; Casto, J M; Kashon, M L et al. (1992) Prenatal flutamide alters sexually dimorphic nuclei in the spinal cord of male rats. Brain Res 578:69-74
Kerchner, M; Ward, I L (1992) SDN-MPOA volume in male rats is decreased by prenatal stress, but is not related to ejaculatory behavior. Brain Res 581:244-51
Grisham, W; Kerchner, M; Ward, I L (1991) Prenatal stress alters sexually dimorphic nuclei in the spinal cord of male rats. Brain Res 551:126-31
Ward, I L; Stehm, K E (1991) Prenatal stress feminizes juvenile play patterns in male rats. Physiol Behav 50:601-5
Ward, I L; Ward, O B; Hayden, T et al. (1990) Naltrexone normalizes the suppression but not the surge of delta 5-3 beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase activity in Leydig cells of stressed rat fetuses. Endocrinology 127:88-92
Salisbury, R; Reed, J; Ward, I L et al. (1989) Plasma luteinizing hormone levels in normal and prenatally stressed male and female rat fetuses and their mothers. Biol Reprod 40:111-7

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