Effect of prenatal stress and extremely low‐frequency electromagnetic fields on anxiety‐like behavior in female rats: With an emphasis on prefrontal cortex and hippocampus

OBJECTIVE: Prenatal stress (PS) is a problematic situation resulting in psychological implications such as social anxiety. Ubiquitous extremely low‐frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF‐EMF) have been confirmed as a potential physiological stressor; however, useful neuroregenerative effect of these types of electromagnetic fields has also frequently been reported. The aim of the present study was to survey the interaction of PS and ELF‐EMF on anxiety‐like behavior. METHOD: A total of 24 female rats 40 days of age were distributed into four groups of 6 rats each: control, stress (their mothers were exposed to stress), EMF (their mothers underwent to ELF‐EMF), and EMF/stress (their mothers concurrently underwent to stress and ELF‐EMF). The rats were assayed using elevated plus‐maze and open field tests. RESULTS: Expressions of the hippocampus GAP‐43, BDNF, and caspase‐3 (cas‐3) were detected by immunohistochemistry in Cornu Ammonis 1 (CA1) and dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex (PFC). Anxiety‐like behavior increased in all treatment groups. Rats in the EMF/stress group presented more serious anxiety‐like behavior. In all treatment groups, upregulated expression of cas‐3 was seen in PFC, DG, and CA1 and downregulated expression of BDNF and GAP‐43 was seen in PFC and DG and the CA1. Histomorphological study showed vast neurodegenerative changes in the hippocampus and PFC. CONCLUSION: The results showed ,female rats that underwent PS or/and EMF exhibited critical anxiety‐like behavior and this process may be attributed to neurodegeneration in PFC and DG of the hippocampus and possibly decreased synaptic plasticity so‐called areas.