Women who want to ensure the neurological health of their unborn children would do well to avoid stress.
A new study conducted in mice suggests repeated exposure to even mildly stressful situations can increase the risk for cerebral palsy in the developing fetus.
The research was conducted in France by investigators who exposed pregnant mice to disrupted cycles of light and dark throughout their pregnancies. These mice were compared to a control group of mice that did not experience the ongoing stress. All of the developing fetuses were subjected to a form of brain injury similar to that seen in cerebral palsy in humans.
Upon birth, the brains of the newborn mice were examined to see if prenatal stress had any impact on the lesions. The lesions were about twice as large in the mice in the stress group than in the mice in the non-stress group.
The damage persisted as well. After the mice reached adulthood, the investigators tested their ability to navigate through a water maze, finding the mice exposed to stress in the womb performed significantly worse than mice not exposed to stress.
“Determining the impact of gestational stress on the incidence of cerebral palsy would be of paramount interest,” study author Pierre Gressens, M.D., Ph.D., was quoted as saying. “Limiting stress during human pregnancy might prove to be a cost-efficient way to reduce the human, emotional, social and economic burden of cerebral palsy.”
SOURCE: The Journal of Neuroscience, 2007;27:7532-7540
