Folic acid Supplementation on placental Interleukin-6 and offspring growth in prenatal stress mice model

Abstract

Introduction: Stress during pregnancy affects physical and psychological change, resulting in wide range of mild to severe abnormalities including inflammation, abberant placentation, fetal growth defect, and the decrease quality of life in the fetus’ adulthood. Previous study showed that Folic Acid (FA) has the potential effect in the pregnant and fetus’ prosperities due to the protective properties in the embryogenesis. To that end, we created the stress mice model and treated with FA, assessment was obtained by the expression of IL-6 in placenta and birth weight observation to reflect the fetus quality. Methods: subjects were 21 pregnant mice (Mus musculus) that divided into three groups (n=7) comprised of normal pregnant mice, stress mice model, and stress mice model treated with FA groups. Stress induction started from gestational day (gd) 10 to gd-15 by chronic restrain stress and 379 lux bright light exposure each twice-a-day within 30 minutes to induce depressive and anxiety-like behaviours. Folic acid treatment was begun with the similar time with the stress induction by dose dependent 3 mg/kg bw/day once a day prior the stress induction. On gd-16, mice were euthanized and fetal weight was examined followed by placental tissue collection for immunochemistry staining. Results: Placental IL-6 expression were not statistically different in stressed pregnant-mice treated by folic acid (p=0.077). There was a significant difference in fetal weight (p= 0.0001). In addition, the expression of placental IL-6 was associated with fetal weight (p= 0.021). Conclusions: The FA treatment has the ability to increase the fetal birth weight but unable to decrease the IL-6 as the pro-inflammatory cytokine in stress-induced mice.