Neuroendocrine disorders in adult rats treated prenatally with hydrocortisone acetate

We investigated the effects of hydrocortisone acetate administered to pregnant rats over the last gestational week on some neuroendocrine characteristics in adult female and male offspring. Prenatal glucocorticoid eliminated sex dimorphism of the neurons nuclei volumes in the medial preoptic area and the suprachiasmatic nuclei. There was no elevation of blood plasma corticosterone level after noradrenaline infusion into the third brain ventricle in experimental males; meanwhile, in females adrenocortical response was augmented. Male offspring exhibited a decrease of plasma corticosterone response to an acute stress (1h restraint) that was not accompanied by post-stress changes neither in the hypothalamic noradrenaline content nor hippocampal glutamate decarboxylase activity. On the contrary, moderate augmentation of adrenocortical stress reactivity and inhibitory effect of GABAergic system were found in females. It was concluded that exposure to prenatal glucocorticoid is able to alter development of the neuroendocrine systems related to reproduction and stress responses both in males and females and resulted in modification of its sex-dimorphic features in adult life.