Effects of stress across generations: Why sex matters

摘要

In this issue of Biological Psychiatry, Saavedra-Rodnguez and Feig (1) demonstrated that the experience of social stress during a period spanning from adolescence to adulthood induces long-term increases in anxiety-like behavior and social deficits in mice. However, the consequences of stress are revealed to extend far beyond this initial effect. Using a breeding design in which stress-exposed males and females are mated with stressed or nonexposed mice (Figure 1), with no subsequent stress exposure, the effects of stress across generations are explored. Offspring (F1), grandoffspring (F2), and great-grandoffspring (F3) were observed to inherit the effects of parental (FO) stress, with females but not males exhibiting anxiety-like behavior and social deficits. Although males do not inherit the behavioral characteristics associated with stress exposure, the breeding design suggested that it is through males (and not females) that these effects can be transmitted to the F3 generation.