Elevated paternal glucocorticoid exposure alters the small noncoding RNA profile in sperm and modifies anxiety and depressive phenotypes in the offspring

Abstract

Recent studies have suggested that physiological and behavioral traits may be transgenerationally inherited through the paternal lineage, possibly via non-genomic signals derived from the sperm. To investigate how paternal stress might influence offspring behavioral phenotypes, a model of hypothalamic-pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis dysregulation was used. Male breeders were administered water supplemented with corticosterone (CORT) for 4 weeks before mating with untreated female mice. Female, but not male, F1 offspring of CORT-Treated fathers displayed altered fear extinction at 2 weeks of age. Only male F1 offspring exhibited altered patterns of ultrasonic vocalization at postnatal day 3 and,..