Hippocampal morphology is differentially affected by reproductive experience in the mother

Pregnancy and mothering result in a number of hormonal, neurological, and behavioral changes that are necessary to ensure reproductive success. With subsequent reproductive experience (multiparity and mothering), further neurological and behavioral changes may result. Recent research has shown that...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of neurobiology 2006-01, Vol.66 (1), p.71-81
Main Authors: Pawluski, Jodi L., Galea, Liisa A.M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis of Variance
Animals
Animals, Newborn
Cell Size
Corticosterone - blood
Dendrites - ultrastructure
dendritic arborization
Dendritic Spines - ultrastructure
Estradiol - blood
Female
hippocampus
Hippocampus - cytology
male offspring
mothering
Neurons - cytology
Parity - physiology
Pregnancy
Random Allocation
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
reproductive experience
Silver Staining - methods
spine density
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Summary:Pregnancy and mothering result in a number of hormonal, neurological, and behavioral changes that are necessary to ensure reproductive success. With subsequent reproductive experience (multiparity and mothering), further neurological and behavioral changes may result. Recent research has shown that previous motherhood enhances both hippocampus‐dependent learning and memory and long‐term potentiation (LTP); together with decreases in hippocampus volumes during pregnancy it is suggested that the hippocampus is affected by pregnancy and/or mothering. The present experiment aimed to investigate the effect of reproductive experience (nulli, primi‐, and multiparity and mothering) on dendritic morphology in the CA1 and CA3 regions of the hippocampus. Brains were stained with a modified version of the single‐section Golgi impregnation technique, and dendritic length, number of branch points, and spine density was analyzed for apical and basal regions of CA1 and CA3 pyramidal neurons. Primiparity and/or mothering resulted in dendritic remodeling in both the CA1 and CA3 hippocampal regions, and multiparity resulted in enhanced spine density in the basal CA1 region, which was positively correlated with number of male pups in a litter. These findings point to the effect of reproductive experience and offspring on plasticity in the hippocampus, an area not traditionally associated with motherhood. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Neurobiol, 2006
ISSN:0022-3034
1097-4695
DOI:10.1002/neu.20194