Developmental estrogen exposures and disruptions to maternal behavior and brain: Effects of ethinyl estradiol, a common positive control

作者：Catanese Mary C; Vandenberg Laura N^*

来源：Hormones and Behavior, 2018, 101: 113-124.

DOI：10.1016/j.yhbeh.2017.10.013

• Contraceptive
• Endocrine disruptor
• Maternal-infant interaction
• Open field
• Vulnerable period
• Xenoestrogen
• Organizational effects

Due of its structural similarity to the endogenous estrogen 17 beta-estradiol (E2), the synthetic estrogen 17 alpha-ethinyl estradiol (EE2) is widely used to study the effects of estrogenic substances on sensitive organs at multiple stages of development. Here, we investigated the effects of EE2 on maternal behavior and the maternal brain in females exposed during gestation and the perinatal period. We assessed several components of maternal behavior including nesting behavior and pup retrieval; characterized the expression of estrogen receptor (ER)alpha in the medial preoptic area (MPOA), a brain region critical for the display of maternal behavior; and measured expression of tyrosine hydroxylase, a marker for dopaminergic cells, in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), a brain region important in maternal motivation. We found that developmental exposure to EE2 induces subtle effects on several aspects of maternal behavior including time building the nest and time spent engaged in self-care. Developmental exposure to EE2 also altered ERa expression in the central MPOA during both early and late lactation and led to significantly reduced tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity in the VTA. Our results demonstrate both dose- and postpartum stage-related effects of developmental exposure to EE2 on behavior and brain that manifest later in adulthood, during the maternal period. These findings provide further evidence for effects of exposure to exogenous estrogenic compounds during the critical periods of fetal and perinatal development.

• 出版日期2018-5