UC Irvine

Intergenerational trauma increases lifetime susceptibility to depression and other psychiatric disorders. Whether intergenerational trauma transmission is a consequence of in-utero neurodevelopmental disruptions versus early-life mother-infant interaction is unknown. Here, we demonstrate that trauma exposure during pregnancy induces in mouse offspring social deficits and depressive-like behavior. Normal pups raised by traumatized mothers exhibited similar behavioral deficits to those induced in pups raised by their biological traumatized mothers. Good caregiving by normal mothers did not reverse prenatal trauma-induced behaviors, indicating a two-hit stress mechanism comprising both in-utero abnormalities and early-life poor parenting. The behavioral deficits were associated with profound changes in the brain metabotranscriptome. Striking increases in the mitochondrial hypoxia marker and epigenetic modifier 2-hydroxyglutaric acid in the brains of neonates and adults exposed prenatally to trauma indicated mitochondrial dysfunction and epigenetic mechanisms. Bioinformatic analyses revealed stress- and hypoxia-response metabolic pathways in the neonates, which produced long-lasting alterations in mitochondrial energy metabolism and epigenetic processes (DNA and chromatin modifications). Most strikingly, early pharmacological interventions with acetyl-L-carnitine (ALCAR) supplementation produced long-lasting protection against intergenerational trauma-induced depression.