Research reportAn investigation into the effects of antenatal stressors on the postpartum neuroimmune profile and depressive-like behaviors

- Inflammatory cytokines are differentially expressed in the brain postpartum.
- Pregnancy modulates the neuroimmune response to immune activation.
- Pregnancy and sub-chronic stress both induce anhedonia immediately postpartum.

Postpartum depression is a specific type of depression that affects approximately 10-15% of mothers [28]. While many have attributed the etiology of postpartum depression to the dramatic change in hormone levels that occurs immediately postpartum, the exact causes are not well-understood. It is well-known, however, that pregnancy induces a number of dramatic changes in the peripheral immune system that foster the development of the growing fetus. It is also well-known that changes in immune function, specifically within the brain, have been linked to several neuropsychiatric disorders including depression. Thus, we sought to determine whether pregnancy induces significant neuroimmune changes postpartum and whether stress or immune activation during pregnancy induce a unique neuroimmune profile that may be associated with depressive-like behaviors postpartum. We used late-gestation sub-chronic stress and late-gestation acute immune activation to examine the postpartum expression of depressive-like behaviors, microglial activation markers, and inflammatory cytokines within the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the hippocampus (HP). The expression of many immune molecules was significantly altered in the brain postpartum, and postpartum females also showed significant anhedonia, both independently of stress. Following late-gestation immune activation, we found a unique set of changes in neuroimmune gene expression immediately postpartum. Thus, our data indicate that even in the absence of additional stressors, postpartum females exhibit significant changes in the expression of cytokines within the brain that are associated with depressive-like behavior. Additionally, different forms of antenatal stress produce varying profiles of postpartum neuroimmune gene expression and associated depressive-like behaviors.