Fig. 1.
A: schematic of experimental protocol. Fifteen-day pregnant mice (E15) were subjected to 1 h of restraint stress and allowed to deliver normally. Offspring received one intraperitoneal injection of ovalbumin (OVA)/Al(OH)3 on day 4 of life and 10 min aerosol challenges with 3% OVA on days 12–14 (Intentionally suboptimal protocol) followed by analysis on days 15 and 16. B: maternal serum corticosterone (CORT) levels were evaluated by ELISA immediately after the stress (RS) vs. unstressed controls (n ≥ 5/group, *P < 0.05). C: after maternal stress, fetal E19 serum CORT levels were elevated significantly vs. the levels seen in control fetuses, tested as a pool of samples from a pregnant mouse (n = 3/group, *P < 0.05). D: maternal serum CORT levels were not affected by handling or vehicle injection (n = 3/group).