Hippocampus Neuroprotection During Lactation: a Model to Study Neuroendocrine-Immune Interactions

ABSTRACT

During motherhood the maternal brain undergoes a collection of adaptive changes including behavioral, neuroendocrine, and autonomic responses related to maternal behavior and milk production. Steroid (estradiol, progesterone, and corticosterone) and peptide hormone (oxytocin and prolactin) levels fluctuate having an impact in areas of the maternal brain inducing structural and functional changes. Recent reports from our laboratory documented neuroprotection in the hippocampus of lactating rats against excitotoxic damage induced by kainic acid. This review focuses on recent studies about neural plasticity induced by reproduction in the maternal brain, with special focus on lactation as a model for neuroprotection, and on the possible involvement of the immune system in this phenomenon.

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