Table 1.

Summarized results (mean ± SEM) adapted from recent prenatal stress (PNS) studies in our lab, which indicate the effects of PNS via psychological stress [exposure to physical restraint (restraint) or unpredictable variable stress (variable) which included forced swim, restraint, cold exposure, overnight fasting, light, and social crowding], immune challenge [exposure to lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 30 μg/kg; dams only), or interleukin-1β (IL-1β, 1 μg/rat)], finasteride administration (50 mg/kg), or minimal handling/vehicle (control) on gestational days 17–21 (n = 4–8 dams/group; n = 17–30 offspring/group) has on maternal/fetal allopregnanolone and dependent cognitive behaviors (object recognition performance) of male and female rats (data are collapsed on the variable of sex).

Challenge at GD17-21	How?	Dams’ plasma AlloP at parturition (ng/ml)	Offspring (male and female) Hippo AlloP (ng/g)	Novel obj recognition (% time with Object)	Reference
Control (nothing, vehicle)	Handling, IP Saline, SC oil	2.2 ± 0.8	1.8 ± 0.2	53 ± 4%	•Paris and Frye (2011a,b), Paris et al. (2011, under review)
Psychological (restraint, variable)	Thrice daily	0.7 ± 0.2*	1.0 ± 0.4	31 ± 9%*	•Paris and Frye (2011a), Paris and Frye (2011b)
Immune (LPS-dams only, IL-1β)	LPS (30 μg/kg, IP); IL-1β (1 μg/day, IP)	1.2 ± 0.1*	1.5 ± 0.6 (IL-1β only)	27 ± 9%* (IL-1β only)	• Paris et al. (under review)
Endocrine (finasteride)	50 mg/kg	0.5 ± 0.3*	0.5 ± 0.2*	22 ± 7%*	•Paris et al. (2011)

*Indicates significantly different from control group, p < 0.05.