Early life maternal separation stress augmentation of limbic epileptogenesis: The role of corticosterone and HPA axis programming

Abstract

Early life stress causes long-lasting effects on the limbic system that may be relevant to the development of mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) and its associated psychopathology. Recent studies in rats suggest that maternal separation (MS), a model of early life stress, confers enduring vulnerability to amygdala kindling limbic epileptogenesis. However, the mechanisms underlying this remain unknown. Here, we tested whether hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis hyper-reactivity induced by MS - specifically the excessive secretion of corticosterone following a seizure - was involved in this vulnerability. In adult female rats subjected to MS from postnatal days 2-14, seizure-induced co..