background:the polysialylated neural cell adhesion molecule (psa-ncam) is expressed in developing brain. fetal brain damage is caused by different conditions such as seizure and hypoxia. the present study was designed to investigate the effect of maternal seizures on the number of psa-ncam positive cells in pup's hippocampus. methods: female wistar rats were divided into four groups: (a) k...

A physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PB-PK) model was developed to describe trichloroethylene (TCE) kinetics in the lactating rat and nursing pup. The lactating dam was exposed to TCE either by inhalation or by ingestion in drinking water. The nursing pup's exposure to TCE was by ingestion of maternal milk containing TCE. The kinetics of trichloroacetic acid (TCA), a metabolite of TCE, were...

During the early postpartum period or following estrogen/progesterone administration, pups elicit maternal behavior accompanied by a robust dopamine (DA) response in the nucleus accumbens (NAC) of female rats (Afonso et al., 2009). To determine whether DA responds to ostensibly "salient" stimuli in the absence of consummatory behaviors, we examined NAC shell DA responses during restricted (stim...

This study investigates changes in systolic and diastolic blood pressure Sprague Dawley rat dams exposed to postpartum stress. Eighteen pregnant were randomly divided into three groups: Control (C, n = 6, no-stress), Maternal Separation (MS, 6), Brief (BMS, 6). The pups group C housed under standard conditions their cages at the animal facility during period. From day 2 14, MS BMS separated fro...

Evidence implicates pivotal roles for parathyroid hormone-related protein (PTHrP) during lactation, including stimulation of mammary and pup growth. As spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) pups are growth restricted compared with the control Wistar Kyoto (WKY), we examined the relative roles of pup suckling and maternal lactational environment on pup growth, mammary PTHrP, and milk PTHrP and ca...

When animals and their offspring are threatened, parents switch from self-defense to offspring protection. How self-defense is suppressed remains elusive. We postulated that suppression of the self-defense response, freezing, is gated via oxytocin acting in the centro-lateral amygdala (CeL). We found that rat dams conditioned to fear an odor, froze when tested alone, whereas if pups were presen...

When removed from the nest and placed in a cool environment, Norway rat (Rattus norvegicus) pups emit ultrasonic vocalizations that can elicit maternal search behavior. The authors examined the behavior of pregnant dams, mothers, and virgin females during exposure to a pup that was either warm and silent or cool and vocalizing. Results indicate potentiated maternal reactions to a vocalizing pup...