Figure 2.

Analyses of physiological and behavioral measures in adult second-generation males from the paternal stress lineage (F2-S♂) show a similar dysmasculinized physiology and stress-sensitive phenotype as their sires. As further evidence of dysmasculinization programmed during the perinatal period by testosterone, adult F2-S males showed a significant reduction in both anogenital distance lengths (A) and testis weights (B) compared to control males (F2-C♂). Behaviorally, while not all aspects of the first-generation stress-sensitive phenotype were transmitted along the paternal lineage to second-generation (F2) male offspring, we did detect increased immobility in a tail suspension test in F2-S male mice (C). Similar to first-generation findings, no further increase in immobility was observed in F2-S female offspring (F2-S♀) compared to control females (F2-C♀). E, While there was no statistically significant effect of F2-S in latency to locate the target in the Barnes maze spatial learning task, the direction of effect in F2-S males was similar to that previously reported for first-generation offspring. F, No differences were detected in latencies in F2 control and stress females. No main effects of F2-S in either male (G) or female (H) offspring were detected for corticosterone levels in response to an acute restraint stress. All data are mean per group ± SEM, n = 6–9 litters/group, *p < 0.05.