Behavioral changes induced by prenatal acute endotoxemia in mice offspring

This study aimed to investigate septic complications resulted in behavioral changes in mice offspring. pregnant swiss female mice were intraperitonealy injected with the acute bacterial lipopolysaccharides (lps) at a single dose of 2.5 mg/kg of body weight at the 7th day of gestation. lps increased the oxidative stress and decreased the anti-oxidant glutathione in the tissue of the lps-treated mothers and pups. this might mediate the behavioral complications responses to the lps in the pups born to lps-treated mothers. the experiments indicated that lps significantly reduced the locomotors activity of mice pups when compared with the saline-control mice. lps was found to inhibit the sensory motor reflexes in all elements of acts and postures. significant decreases were observed in the social contacts,threat,attack and number of fights of pups born to lps-treated mothers. highly distributed focal areas indicating many phagocytic activities with a marked depletion of lymphocytes was observed in section from thymus of pups born to lps-treated mice,indicating an intense inflammation. in conclusion,prenatal lps-induced inflammation enhanced the susceptibility to the development of neonatal systemic and behavioral disorders. copyright 2013 zoological society of pakistan.