Hippocampal neurogenesis in the prenatally stressed rat is enhanced by resveratrol treatment

An increasing number of reports have provided correlational evidence that prenatal stress caused a suppressed hippocampal neurogenesis. Resveratrol, a polyphenolic activator of sirtuin 1, is known to exert its neuroprotective potential by enhancing neurogenesis in hippocampus. But the efficacy of resveratrol against prenatal stress was not studied to the best of our knowledge. To address this issue we evaluated the neuroprotective action of resveratrol on prenatal stress-induced impaired neurogenesis. Pregnant rats were subjected to restraint stress during early or late gestational period. Another sets of rats received resveratrol during entire gestational period along with early or late gestational stress. Neurogenesis in the hippocampus was assessed by using a neuronal marker doublecortin on 21^st postnatal day. Both early and late gestational stress resulted in significant decrease in neurogenesis and in hippocampus. The decrease of neurogenesis was more profound in the offspring who received late gestational stress compared to early gestational stress Resveratrol treatment has improved the neurogenesis. These data suggest the neuroprotective efficacy of resveratrol against prenatal stress induced impaired neurogenesis.