Prenatal restraint stress and motherless rearing disrupts expression of plasticity markers and stress-induced corticosterone release in adult female Sprague–Dawley rats

This study investigated the effects of prenatal stress and complete maternal deprivation, using the artificial rearing (AR) paradigm, on the expression of neural plasticity markers and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis responsivity to stress. Rats were exposed to stress during gestation (day 10-21) and postnatally were either artificially reared (AR) or mother reared (MR). AR involves complete separation of the pup from both the dam and …