Maternal chewing alleviates prenatal stress-related neuroinflammation mediated by microglia in the hippocampus of the mouse offspring

Purpose: Prenatal stress affects the hippocampal structure and function in pups. Maternal chewing ameliorates hippocampus-dependent cognitive impairments induced by prenatal stress. In this study, we investigated hippocampal microglia-mediated neuroinflammation in pups of dams exposed to prenatal stress with or without chewing during gestation.