Influência do desafio imunogênico em camundongos por vacina influenza A (H1N1) durante a gestação sobre comportamentos relacionados à memória e sociabilidade na prole em idade adulta

Abstract

Neuropsychiatric disorders are among the diseases that most affect world population. Studies demonstrate the influence of genetic and environmental factors in triggering these disorders. An important environmental aspect is prenatal stress due to infectious agents, which leads to activation of the immune system and production of cytokines, molecules capable of crossing placental barrier and reaching fetus, what may impair its neurodevelopment. Vaccination has been an important tool against epidemics, being recommended during pregnancy. Since vaccination also alters levels of proinflammatory cytokines, it is important to investigate the effect of this practice on offspring of pregnant women. Therefore, this work aims to evaluate the effect of vaccination on behavior related to memory and sociability of adult offspring and to investigate if the period of infection plays a role in these changes. For this, Balb C pregnant mice received injections of influenza A (H1N1) or saline vaccine on sixth (E6) or sixteenth (E16) day of gestation. Adult offspring was submitted in Social Interaction Task (SI), which evaluates sociability and preference for social novelty, and Object Recognition Task (OR), which evaluates learning and memory. Results for OR showed changes in learning and memory of offspring whose mothers were treated with influenza A (H1N1) vaccine at E16, but not at E6, indicating that the time of maternal immune challenge determines the patterns of behavioral abnormalities displayed by the offspring at adult age. For SI, control groups did not exhibit expected behavior for normal animals, indicating a possible failure in the method.