Fig. 1.

Maternal immune activation and fever verification. A. Timeline of MIA experiments. Dams were mated with a male partner overnight and checked for the presence of a sperm plug in the morning. Positive identification of the sperm plug was treated as day 0.5. On embryonic day 12.5 dams were injected with either 0.5 mg/kg Poly I:C (n = 7 dams) or saline (n = 5 dams) and allowed to return to their cages. The presence of a fever response was verified by taking temperatures at baseline (prior to injection) and 4 and 24 h post injection. Mothers carried out their pregnancy until parturition and were allowed to raise their pups normally. Offspring of Poly I:C and saline treated mothers were randomly assigned to treatment groups and cannula implantation occurred on PN50. Behavioral testing began on PN64. B. Mean (+/−) SEM) rectal temperatures. Mothers treated with Poly I:C developed significant fever responses with temperatures significantly increased in dams treated with Poly I:C compared to saline injected dams at 4 h post injection. ***p < 0.001.