Gestational stress induces persistent depressive‐like behavior and structural modifications within the postpartum nucleus accumbens

Postpartum depression (PPD) is a common complication following childbirth experienced by one in every five new mothers. Pregnancy stress enhances vulnerability to PPD and has also been shown to increase depressive‐like behavior in postpartum rats. Thus, gestational stress may be an important translational risk factor that can be used to investigate the neurobiological mechanisms underlying PPD. Here we examined the effects of gestational stress on depressive‐like behavior during the early/mid and late postpartum periods and evaluated whether this was accompanied by altered structural plasticity in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a brain region that has been linked to PPD. We show that early/mid (postpartum day 8) postpartum female rats exhibited more depressive‐like behavior in the forced swim test as compared with late postpartum females (postpartum day 22). However, 2 weeks of restraint stress during pregnancy increased depressive‐like behavior regardless of postpartum timepoint. In addition, dendritic length, branching and spine density on medium spiny neurons in the NAc shell were diminished in postpartum rats that experienced gestational stress although stress‐induced reductions in spine density were evident only in early/mid postpartum females. In the NAc core, structural plasticity was not affected by gestational stress but late postpartum females exhibited lower spine density and reduced dendritic length. Overall, these data not only demonstrate structural changes in the NAc across the postpartum period, they also show that postpartum depressive‐like behavior following exposure to gestational stress is associated with compromised structural plasticity in the NAc and thus may provide insight into the neural changes that could contribute to PPD.