Like Father, Like Son

Both stressed male mice and their male offspring exhibited impaired behavior and hippocampal and spermatic epigenetic changes; some of these were reversed by environmental enrichment.

An enduring question is how sons come to resemble their fathers. These investigators studied stressed male mice.

From postnatal days 1 to 14, male offspring were stressed with 3-hour daily separations from their mothers, during which time the mothers received unpredictable (randomly timed) stress (e.g., being put in a plexiglass tube). As adults, stressed males took longer than nonstressed controls to escape from overly bright surroundings and to avoid foot shocks. These stressed males, bred to normal females, had male progeny who also exhibited problems with escaping bright lights. But, unlike their fathers, these second-generation males exhibited resilience (i.e., were quicker than nonstressed controls to avoid foot shocks). Both first- an…

Reviewing Author

Barbara Geller, MD

Disclosures

Nothing to disclose

Barbara Geller, MD

Disclosures

Nothing to disclose

Like Father, Like Son

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Reviewing Author