ArticleThe journal of physiological sciences : JPS2018
Litter size reduction accentuates maternal care and alters behavioral and physiological phenotypes in rat adult offspring.
Article in The journal of physiological sciences : JPS, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 46 citations in OpenAlex.
- Limited nesting stress in mice as a model to study neuroimmune relationships in postpartum depression.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Natural variations in maternal behavior shape anxiety and hippocampal neurogenesis in offspring.Life science alliance · 2026Article
- Litter sex composition influences plasma prolactin levels but not the melanin-concentrating hormone immunoreactive neurons in the medial preoptic area of late lactating Long-Evans rats.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2025Article
- Rearing in a Shelved Environment Chronically Modifies Offspring Behaviour and Physiology.The European journal of neuroscience · 2025Article
- Guidelines for in vivo models of developmental programming of cardiovascular disease risk.American journal of physiology. Heart and circulatory physiology · 2024Review
- Unraveling the Influence of Litter Size, Maternal Care, Exercise, and Aging on Neurobehavioral Plasticity and Dentate Gyrus Microglia Dynamics in Male Rats.Brain sciences · 2024Article
- The interplay of maternal and offspring obesogenic diets: the impact on offspring metabolism and muscle mitochondria in an outbred mouse model.Frontiers in physiology · 2024Article
- Article
- Thermoneutrality effects on developmental programming of obesity.Journal of developmental origins of health and disease · 2023Article
- Poly(I:C)-induced maternal immune activation causes elevated self-grooming in male rat offspring: Involvement of abnormal postpartum static nursing in dam.Frontiers in cell and developmental biology · 2023Article
- The impact of a maternal and offspring obesogenic diet on daughter's oocyte mitochondrial ultrastructure and bioenergetic responses. Insights from an outbred mouse model.Frontiers in physiology · 2023Article
- One week of maternal separation induces more frequent, but less predictable, maternal caregiving behaviors.International journal of developmental neuroscience : the official journal of the International Society for Developmental Neuroscience · 2022Article
- Review
- Differential fate between oxytocin and vasopressin cells in the developing mouse brain.iScience · 2022Article
- Reducing Pup Litter Size Alters Early Postnatal Calcium Homeostasis and Programs Adverse Adult Cardiovascular and Bone Health in Male Rats.Nutrients · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Maternal behavior has a substantial impact on the behavioral, endocrine, and neural development of the pups. This study investigated the effect of altering the neonatal nutritional environment by modifying the litter size on maternal care and anxiety- and fear-like behaviors in rats during adulthood. On postnatal day (PND) 2, litters were adjusted to a small litter (SL) size of three pups per dam or normal litter (NL) size of 12 pups per dam. Maternal behaviors were scored daily during lactation (PND2-21). The weight gain, food intake, adiposity, and biochemical landmarks of offspring rats were evaluated. On PND60, performances in the open field, elevated plus-maze (EPM), and fear conditioning test were measured. The reduction of the litter size enhanced maternal care in lactating rats, increasing the arched-back posture and licking pups. SL offspring exhibited accelerated weight gain, hyperphagia, increased visceral fat mass, dyslipidemia, and hyperleptinemia in adulthood. The SL offspring of both sexes showed an increase in the anti-thigmotactic effect in the open field, an intact anxious-phenotype in the EPM, and a decrease in the time spent freezing during the fear-conditioning test, compared to NL. The neonatal environment as determined by litter size plays a crucial role in programming the adult metabolic phenotype as well as behavioral responses to stressful stimuli, with an impact on anxiety-like and fear behaviors. These behavioral changes in offspring may be, at least in part, a result of increased maternal care.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.