Anxiety during the postpartum period: examining the role of GABA in the medial prefrontal cortex
Loading...
Date
2017-05
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Ohio State University
Abstract
The postpartum period is commonly accompanied by emotional changes, which for many new mothers includes a reduction in anxiety. Previous research on the postpartum reduction in anxiety in rodents has shown that it is dependent on offspring contact and further has implicated enhanced GABAergic neurotransmission as an underlying mechanism. However, the specific brain regions where GABA acts to regulate the offspring-induced reduction in postpartum anxiety requires further investigation. Of particular interest is the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), which has been shown to play a role in the modulation of anxiety-related behavior. Here, we test the hypothesis that offspring interactions reduce anxiety-like behavior in postpartum females (dams) via GABA signaling in the mPFC in three experiments. In experiment one, we confirmed that dams display reduced anxiety compared to virgin females when tested on the elevated plus maze, an effect which was abolished by infusion of the GABAA receptor antagonist bicuculline in the mPFC. In experiment two, we found that dams that had been separated from their pups for 4 hr displayed increased anxiety as compared to dams that were not separated. Furthermore, activation of GABAA receptors in the mPFC by the agonist muscimol restored the reduced levels of anxiety-like behavior. In a final experiment, we found that mothers that were separated from their pups not only show increased levels of anxiety-like behavior but also had a lower number and percentage of activated GABAergic neurons within the mPFC. Together, these results suggest that mother-pup interactions reduce anxiety in postpartum females via GABAA neurotransmission in the mPFC and in doing so provide insight into mechanisms that may become dysfunctional in high postpartum anxiety.
Description
Keywords
anxiety, postpartum, GABA, mPFC