Endocrine Abstracts

Decades of clinical experience and research in human and non-human primates demonstrate that maternal care received early in life strongly influences the development of parenting and other social skills as well as resiliency in the face of stress. Analogous intergenerational effects of maternal nurturing have recently been reported in rats. Adult stress responses (anxiety and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activation) are inversely related to the amount of maternal lickin...

Around birth, beginning in mid-pregnancy and lasting until lactation, dramatic neuroendocrine and behavioural adaptations occur in the maternal organism as, for example, the reactivity of the HPA axis to various stressors is blunted. Further, state anxiety, the emotional evaluation of a stressorand the level of calmness are altered at this time. In addition to an attenuated feed forward drive to the HPA axis, reduced activity of the CRH system, and lack of excitatory inputs to...

There is clear evidence in humans that stress during pregnancy has negative consequences on the foetus leading to greater susceptibility to disorders such as heart disease, diabetes type II and anxiety in adulthood. We aimed to assess whether stressors experienced by commercial pigs have a detrimental impact on piglet behavioural and neurophysiological development. Thirty-six primiparous sows were divided into control and two mixed groups that were stressed (social mixing) dur...

Miscarriages are the most common form of pregnancy failure in humans. In general, genetic, endocrinologic, immunologic, anatomic or microbiologic causes account for the onset of a miscarriage. These factors have been completed by epidemiological studies which indicated the contribution of perceived stress to the onset of miscarriages.Stress interferes with reproduction by altering the immune and endocrine system. Traditionally, progesterone is considered...