Effects of maternal stress and extremely low frequency electromagnetic field exposure before and during pregnancy on anxiety and depression_like behaviors and brain cryptochrome 2 in male offspring prefrontal cortex

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the effect of prenatal stress and extremely low-frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMF) before and during pregnancy on the offsprings’ prefrontal cortex (PFC) cryptochrome type 2 (CRY2) and serum corticosterone (CORT) levels in male offspring and their relationships with anxiety- and depressive-like behaviors. Methods: Female Wistar rats were randomly divided into four groups (n=8): control (C), stress (S), electromagnetic field (EMF), and S-EMF groups. The control group was exposed to a switched off jammer device. Animals in the S and S-EMF groups were subjected to chronic mild stress (CMS) protocol for 21 days before and 21 days during pregnancy. The EMF groups were exposed to the ELF-EMF (50 Hz, 100 μT) for 4 h/day. Behavioral tests including the elevated plus maze, open field test, and forced swimming test were conducted on the male offspring at postnatal day (PND) 80, 81, and 90. The PFC expression of CRY2 and serum CORT levels were measured. Results: results showed that maternal stress exposure caused anxiety- and depressive-like behaviors in the male offspring, accompanied by decreased prefrontal CRY2 protein expression, and increased serum CORT levels. However, parallel ELF-EMF and stress exposures significantly attenuated anxiety and depressive-like behaviors, and decreased CORT levels in the S-EMF group’s offspring compared to the S group.