A developmental origin of behavioural disorders is well documented but underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Prenatal stress has been linked to negative neurodevelopmental outcomes in offspring including behavioural difficulties, cognitive impairment, anxiety and altered hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis function. We have previously identified a core maternal biological signature of active prenatal stress (Keane et al., 2021). The main aim of this project is to evaluate the implications of differential stress signatures in primary cultures. The hypothesis is that high/low stress signatures in maternal serum will impact neural development differentially. This will be evaluated by screening serum from mothers identified as having a high/low vulnerability to stress in vitro on primary cultures of E18 rat prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, two areas of the developing brain known to be adversely affected by prenatal maternal stress. To do this, we will use a well characterised neurosphere assay. During the expansion phase, cells will be cultured with or without 3% plasma corresponding to high or low biological stress signatures. This phase will be used to check the effects of these treatments on neural progenitor proliferation by performing longitudinal analyses of neurosphere diameter, BrdU incorporation and Ki67 staining within individual neurospheres. We will also investigate neural progenitor cell differentiation. After differentiation, cultures will be fixed and stained for major neural subtypes including neurons (B-III tubulin, MAP2) astrocytes (GFAP) and Oligodendrocytes (MBP). The percentage of cells in these treatment groups will be counted to determine if treatments influence differentiation. In parallel cultures, cell survival will be examined through a range of functional read outs of cell viability, including LDH, MTT and TUNEL staining, in conjunction with western blotting for markers of the apoptotic cascades. This in vitro study will allow us the determine if and how a circulating maternal stress signature affects neurodevelopment and inform future studies.
