Figure 6.

Postpubertal onset of altered D2R expression in striatal regions following prenatal immune challenge. Pregnant mice were exposed to the viral mimic Poly-I:C or vehicle treatment, and the effects on striatal D2R expression were studied in the resulting offspring at the fetal (GD19), peripubertal (PND35), and adult (PND70) stages of development using optical densitometry of immunohistochemically stained coronal brain sections. A, Offspring born to Poly-I:C-treated mothers did not display any significant differences in D2R immunoreactivity in the CPu at the fetal, peripubertal, or adult stage of development compared with age-matched offspring born to vehicle-treated control mothers. B, However, prenatal Poly-I:C exposure significantly increased D2R immunoreactivity specifically in the NAc shell but not in the core subregion in the adult offspring relative to adult control offspring. *p < 0.05, based on Fisher's LSD post hoc group comparison of PND70 specimen following the presence of a significant two-way interaction in the initial 2 × 2 (prenatal treatment × postnatal age) ANOVA (F_(1,42) = 4.28, p < 0.05). C, Representative images of coronal brain sections of adult (PND70) offspring born to vehicle- or Poly-I:C-treated mothers stained for D2R by immunohistochemistry. 1, CPu; 2A, NAc core; 2B, NAc shell. Scale bar, 500 μm. All values in A and B are means ± SEM. The numbers of offspring included in the analyses were N(GD19-vehicle) = 12, N(GD19-Poly-I:C) = 11, N(PND35-vehicle) = 12, N(PND35-Poly-I:C) = 11, N(PND70-vehicle) = 11, N(PND70-Poly-I:C) = 12.