# Female preconception stress programming of offspring neurodevelopment

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE · 2020 · $445,396

## Abstract

Maternal lifetime exposures to perturbations such as stress, infection, malnutrition, and advanced age have
been linked with an increased risk for offspring disease, including a strong association with neuropsychiatric
disorders. While maternal insults during pregnancy can directly impact fetal development, the mechanisms by
which lifelong experiences can alter germ cell programming and affect offspring neurodevelopment are not
known. Surprisingly few animal models have been developed to examine programming mechanisms of
preconception perturbations. In this proposal, we utilize our mouse model of maternal preconception stress
(MPS) in which female, but not male, offspring present with elevated stress sensitivity, to examine the sex-
specific mechanisms contributing to neurodevelopmental programming. Based on our exciting published and
preliminary data, we hypothesize that MPS imparts changes in oocyte stored maternal mRNAs that interact
during blastocyst and placental development to program sex-specific changes in the developing hypothalamus.
Our hypothesis will be tested in this proposal and examined at 3 distinct mechanistic levels: the oocyte, the
placenta, and the hypothalamus. Sex differences in the placenta are likely to produce sex-specific trans-
placental signals to the developing brain and begin with sex chromosomes. Our studies and others have
identified X-linked genes that are expressed at higher levels in the female placenta. Through a genome-wide
screen following maternal stress, we identified the X-linked gene, OGT, as causal in programming a sex-
specific stress phenotype. Placental OGT is poised to respond to changes in the environment that are
important to the developing embryo, ultimately serving as a sex-specific regulator of hypothalamic
development. Therefore, our proposal will focus on defining mechanisms contributing to MPS programming
examining the: 1) oocyte: To identify the lasting molecular changes that occur in response to preconception
stress that are present at fertilization and their necessity for reproducing the female offspring phenotype, 2)
placenta: To determine the maternal preconception stress sex-specific mechanisms involved in the female
offspring phenotype focusing on the placental contribution, and 3) hypothalamus: To determine the sex-specific
hypothalamic programming changes following maternal preconception stress and the role this plays as an
underlying factor in female neuropsychiatric disease risk.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9928049
- **Project number:** 5R01ES028202-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE
- **Principal Investigator:** Tracy L Bale
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $445,396
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-01 → 2022-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9928049

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9928049, Female preconception stress programming of offspring neurodevelopment (5R01ES028202-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9928049. Licensed CC0.

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