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April 18-24
The Effects of Maternal Stress on the Development of Anhedonia in Offspring
Presenter: Roshnee Roberts
Mentor: Tara LeGates (Biological Sciences)
Abstract:
Early Life Stress (ELS) has lasting effects on one’s life, including depression. To study the neurobiological effects of ELS, we used the limited bedding and nesting paradigm (LBN), where mice were raised with limited resources, modeling impoverished environments that have lasting effects on human health and wellness. Pregnant dams were placed in LBN or control environments before giving birth, and raised pups under those conditions. Upon weaning, mice were housed under standard conditions. We monitored maternal behavior from PD0-PD8. We examined the effects of LBN on stress outcomes in adolescence (PD45) and adulthood (PD90) by measuring serum corticosterone levels and depression-related behaviors using the Sucrose Preference and Social Interaction Tests. The hippocampus is a key brain region sensitive to stress and involved in depression, so we examined hippocampal-dependent learning using the Y-Maze. Preliminary data demonstrated no significant indications of stress or significant differences in depression-related behaviors or hippocampal-dependent learning. These results prevent us from concluding a relation between ELS and the onset of depression. In hopes of promoting early detection and prevention, we will repeat this experiment with a larger sample size to better understand the characterization of depressive symptoms in relation to early life stress.
Roshnee is a member of the Honors College and U-RISE, a URA Scholar, and an LSAMP participant.