Centre of Biosciences SAS
Topic
Consequences of combined therapy of maternal depression on rat offspring
PhD. program
Animal Physiology
Year of admission
2026
Name of the supervisor
prof. RNDr. Ľubica Lacinová, DrSc.
Contact:
Receiving school
Faculty of Natural Sciences of Comenius University in Bratislava
Annotation
The work will focus on the consequences of drug-resistant depression and its treatment during pregnancy on the brain development of the offspring. For this type of depression, a combination of antidepressants is used. We will use the antidepressants aripiprazole (ARI) and ARI in combination with sertaline (SER). We will compare the functional brain development and neurobehavioral consequences in the offspring of rats of both sexes, while evaluating the impact of maternal depression alone and the impact of ARI and ARI+SER treatment. We will focus on the hippocampus and changes in its electrical excitability, in neurogenesis, biochemical, and structural changes.