Sex-related neuropsychiatric recovery from maternal perinatal depression and expression of monoamine and amino acid neurotransmitter levels in specific brain regions of adult offspring

Increasingly, research points to the relationship between monoamine neurotransmitters (serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine) and maternal perinatal depression (MPD). It has been suggested that the impact of MDP may involve alterations in neurotransmitter levels. However, the available data mainly concern male offspring, exclude females, focus on a small set of neurotransmitters, and provide limited information on recovery from MDP in adult offspring. We have previously reported that MPD modeled in rats by chronic mild stress (CMS) during pregnancy and lactation results in sex-dependent neuropsychiatric disorders, such as depression-like and anxiety-related behavior in adolescent but not adult rat offspring and were more pronounced in female than male offspring. The main goal of the present study was to examine the hypothesis that recovery from MDP in adult male and female offspring is associated with the altered expression of monoamine and amino acid neurotransmitters in the hippocampus, frontal cortex, and cerebellum. To examine this hypothesis, brain tissue was collected from adult Sprague Dawley male and female rat offspring from stress-exposed (male, SOM; female, SOF) and control dams (male, COM; female, COF). Our results showed significant changes in neurotransmitter levels, particularly in SOF. We observed decreased levels of homovanillic acid (a dopamine metabolite) and of neuroprotective amino acid neurotransmitters, histidine, arginine, and serine, mainly in the hippocampus and frontal cortex, as well as in cerebellar arginine and serine, in SOF. In contrast, in SOM, we observed reduced serine levels only in the frontal cortex compared with COM. Our results suggest that sex-dependent reductions in brain levels of a key dopamine metabolite and neuroprotective amino acids may contribute to recovery from MDP in adult rat offspring.