Prenatal Hypoxia Impairs Olfactory Function in Postnatal Ontogeny in Rats

• Published in: Neuroscience and behavioral physiology Vol. 52; no. 2; pp. 262 - 270
• Main Authors: Dubrovskaya, N. M., Vasilev, D. S., Tumanova, N. L., Alekseeva, O. S., Nalivaeva, N. N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Age; Behavioral Sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Cortex (entorhinal); Cortex (piriform); Essential oils; Feeding behavior; Food preferences; Food processing; Hypoxia; Neurobiology; Neuronal-glial interactions; Neurosciences; Odor; Olfaction; Olfactory bulb; Ontogeny; Pheromones; Rodents; food search; olfactory bulb; prenatal hypoxia; odor preference; neurodegeneration; piriform cortex; olfaction; postnatal ontogeny
• ISSN: 0097-0549; 1573-899X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11055-022-01233-3

Analysis of the age-related dynamics of olfactory behavior in the odor preference and food search testsshowed that all male Wistar rats, regardless of age, preferred valerian essential oil, whose components have the properties of pheromones in rodents, when given a selection of eight essential oils; young rats displayed better food-seeking results than adult and old animals. Acute prenatal hypoxia (PH) on E14 (7% O
2
for 3 h) led to impairment of the valerian odor preference at all ages studied and to decreased productivity of food searches. Neurodegenerative processes were seen in the piriform cortex after PH, with reductions in the number of neurons and increases in glial elements. We have previously observed these changes in the entorhinal cortex and hippocampus, but not in the olfactory bulbs. This suggests that PH-induced decreases in olfactory function in rats may result from impairments to the formation of the central elements of the analyzer during the first months of postnatal ontogeny.