Resumo

Introduction: Stressful events occurring during the prenatal period may affect the neuroendocrine programming on various aspects and, subsequently amending the offspring's growth and metabolism. Forced swimming per se acts as a stressor, stimulating hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity resulting in elevated glucocorticoid levels. Such prenatal stress-induced modifications of the progeny might ultimately contribute in the development of long-term diseases. Objective: In the current investigation we tested how maternal chronic stress (MCS) (swimming for 8 weeks, 5 times/week, 1 h/day) of mice before fecundation affects the metabolic profile of their offspring. Material and Methods: Two groups of pups were formed: one which MCS was maintained during pregnancy (SP) and; a control group (CG) of no chronic stressed mothers. The offspring was weighted until the 3rd month of age, when mice were euthanized, periepididymal adipose tissue was weighted and blood was collected to measure leptin and insulin levels. The results had been analyzed by Test-t (p > 0.05). Results: Animals presented differences in body weight at the post natal day 90 (p=0.02; SP > CG), as well as, the SP group presented higher adipose tissue weight (p=0.01). However, the SP group presented lower fat relative mass than control group (p=0.03). The measures of leptin and insulin plasmatic did not present differences between groups. Conclusion: Our data suggest that prenatal stress produce alterations on the intrauterine environmental which could result in long lasting offspring metabolic modifications.