Layer-Specific Glutamatergic Inputs and Parvalbumin Interneurons Modulate Early Life Stress-Induced Alterations in Prefrontal Glutamate Release during Fear Conditioning in Pre-adolescent Rats

Exposure to early life stress (ELS) can exert long-lasting impacts on emotional regulation. The corticolimbic system including the basolateral amygdala (BLA), ventral hippocampus (vHIP), and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) plays a key role in fear learning. Using the limited bedding paradigm (LB), we examined the functional consequences of ELS on excitatory and inhibitory tone in the prelimbic (PL) mPFC after fear conditioning in rats. In adults, LB exposure enhanced in vivo glutamate release in the PL mPFC during fear conditioning in male, but not female offspring. In contrast, the glutamate response to fear conditioning was diminished in LB-exposed pre-adolescent males, but not females. We investigated whether reduced glutamatergic inputs and/or elevated inhibitory tone might contribute to the diminished glutamate response in the mPFC following LB in pre-adolescent male rats. Indeed, we found that LB exposure specifically increased the activation of PV, but not SST interneurons in layer V, but not layer II/III of the PL mPFC in fear-exposed pre-adolescent males. Presynaptic glutamate release probability was reduced by LB exposure in layer V, but increased in layer II/III of the PL mPFC. These functional changes might be related to the LB-induced alterations in the bilaminar distribution of BLA and vHIP projections to the PL mPFC we observed in pre-adolescent males. Overall, our findings suggest that ELS modifies glutamate release and PL mPFC function during fear conditioning in a sex- and age-dependent fashion, likely through layer-specific shifts in excitation/inhibition balance.