Effects of maternal peripartum stress on anxiety-like, depressive-like, social and cognitive behaviour in the offspring

Peripartum depression (PPD), a major depressive disorder subtype affecting 10–20% of women worldwide, compromises maternal well-being and offspring neurodevelopment. Despite its high relevance, the mechanisms by which this condition impacts the fetus and the newborn are unclear. To assess how PPD affects the offspring, we used a murine PPD model that combines chronic mild unpredictable stress and maternal separation during pregnancy and postpartum. At 8 weeks old, male and female offspring born to PPD or control dams underwent a battery of tests to evaluate depressive-like, anxiety-like, social, and cognitive behaviour. Our preliminary findings revealed that males showed more anxious-like behaviours in the open field and novelty suppressed feeding, while in females only a trend was observed. No statistically significant differences emerged in the other behavioral domains, although treatment and sex-specific trends were observed in depressive-like behaviours and cognitive tests: PPD females, but not males, showed reduced immobility time compared to controls in the tail suspension and forced swim tests, possibly reflecting higher resilience to behavioral despair, whereas PPD males showed a trend toward working memory impairment. Together, these findings suggest that PPD affects offspring behavior in a sex-specific manner. Future experiments will focus on exploring the underlying mechanisms of these differences.