Objective  To explore the effect of prenatal inflammation on rat offspring’s blood pressure and behavioral performance.   Methods  Twenty-four time-mated Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats were randomly divided into three groups

i.e. control

zymosan and LPS. On their gestation days 8

10

12

the pregnant rats received i.p. injections of sterile saline

0.79 mg/kg zymosan or 0.79 mg/kg LPS respectively. When the offspring were sixty weeks old

eight pups were chosen randomly for the later study. Their serum TNF-α level was detected by ELISA using tail blood

arterial blood pressure was measured by tail-cuff method

and their behavioral performance was detected in Morris water maze test. At the end of the experiment

the brains were rapidly taken from the sacrificed offspring

cut into sections and stained with HE method to investigate the structural changes of hippocampus.   Results  Compared with control group

all offspring from the inflammation groups showed increased serum level of TNF-α

increased systemic arterial blood pressure

long latency in finding the safe platform and decreased number of neurons in CA1 region of hippocampus.   Conclusion  Prenatal exposure to LPS or zymosan results in hypertension and disturbance of learning and memory.