Exposure to early life stress (ELS) can increase vulnerability to various psychiatric disorders. Although ELS has been shown to alter structure and functions of the hippocampus, amygdala and prefrontal cortex in the adult mammalian brain, it remains largely unclear whether ELS also affects embryonic or early-stage brain development. In this study, I investigated the effects of a maternal stress (maternal starvation for 4 days) of adult zebrafish on offspring's larval brain development. Although maternal starvation did not largely affect proliferation rate in the midbrain and hindbrain, it significantly decreased that in the forebrain of larvae at 5 days post-fertilization (dpf). I also found that embryos at 10 hr post-fertilization (hpf) born from a starved mother showed elevated cortisol levels compared to those born from a control mother. Furthermore, cortisol treatment was sufficient to decrease proliferating cells in the forebrain of 5 dpf larvae. Our findings thus demonstrate for the first time that maternal starvation induces neurodevelopmental changes in the forebrain of zebrafish larvae and points to a possible role of maternal cortisol in mediating this effect of maternal stress to offsprings.

中文翻译：

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母体应激会抑制斑马鱼幼虫前脑中的细胞增殖。

暴露于早期生活压力（ELS）中会增加对各种精神病的脆弱性。尽管已显示ELS会改变成年哺乳动物大脑中海马，杏仁核和前额叶皮层的结构和功能，但仍不清楚ELS是否还会影响胚胎或早期大脑发育。在这项研究中，我研究了成年斑马鱼的母体应激（母体饥饿4天）对后代幼虫大脑发育的影响。尽管母体饥饿在很大程度上没有影响中脑和后脑的增殖率，但在受精后第5天（dpf）却显着降低了幼虫前脑的增殖率。我还发现，受饥饿的母亲所生的胚胎在受精后10小时（hpf）的皮质醇水平要高于对照组的母亲。此外，皮质醇处理足以减少5 dpf幼虫前脑中的增殖细胞。因此，我们的发现首次证明母体饥饿会引起斑马鱼幼虫前脑的神经发育变化，并指出母体皮质醇在介导母体应激对后代的影响中可能发挥作用。