PMID- 17105955
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20070110
LR  - 20131121
IS  - 0077-8923 (Print)
IS  - 0077-8923 (Linking)
VI  - 1074
DP  - 2006 Aug
TI  - Effects of prenatal exposure to methamphetamine on the development of the rat 
      retina.
PG  - 590-603
AB  - In recent years there has been growing use of methamphetamine (METH) by pregnant 
      women, resulting in an increasing number of children exposed prenatally to this 
      drug of abuse. METH is known to be potentially neurotoxic to human adults, but 
      there is minimal information with respect to the consequences of such exposure to 
      the fetus. The purpose of this study was to ascertain external parameters of 
      animal development, as well as neurochemical and immunohistochemical alterations 
      at three key points of retinal development (postnatal day [PND] 7, 14, and 30). 
      Rats of the Wistar strain were used in this experimental model. Pregnant females 
      received a dose of 5 mg/kg body weight per day of METH-HCl in 0.9% saline, from 
      gestational day (GD) 8 to 22. The control group to be used was pair fed and 
      saline injected. Litters were randomly culled at PND 1 to 8 pups. Analysis of 
      maternal body weight gain during pregnancy showed that females treated with METH 
      had lower body weights than control-treated females. The body weight on PND 1, 
      showed that animals treated with METH prenatally had smaller body weights than 
      the control-treated animals and also that females weighed less than males. 
      Prenatal exposure to METH did not alter the retinal levels of 
      3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) in the male group and the level of 
      dopamine (DA) in both female and male groups when compared with their respective 
      pair fed control groups during the first month of life. Correlating with the 
      neurochemical data, no obvious changes on the localization of TH immunoreactivity 
      in the rat retina at PND 7, 14, and 30 could be detected between control and 
      METH-treated animals. Thus, exposure to METH disrupted this pattern in a 
      gender-dependent manner. These data confirm previous observation that developing 
      rats are protected against the adult type of METH-induced neurotoxicity. 
      Therefore, conventional markers used for adult animals appear to be 
      unsatisfactory to demarcate boundaries of the PND 1 to 30 critical periods.
FAU - Melo, Pedro
AU  - Melo P
AD  - Unit of Neurobehaviour, Institute for Molecular and Cell Biology, Rua do Campo 
      Alegre, 823, 4150-180 Porto, Portugal. pmelo@ibmc.up.pt
FAU - Rodrigues, Lorena G
AU  - Rodrigues LG
FAU - Silva, M Carolina
AU  - Silva MC
FAU - Tavares, Maria Amelia
AU  - Tavares MA
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PL  - United States
TA  - Ann N Y Acad Sci
JT  - Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences
JID - 7506858
RN  - 0 (Dopamine Agents)
RN  - 44RAL3456C (Methamphetamine)
RN  - EC 1.14.16.2 (Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase)
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - Body Weight
MH  - Disease Models, Animal
MH  - Dopamine Agents/pharmacology
MH  - Female
MH  - Immunohistochemistry
MH  - Male
MH  - *Maternal-Fetal Exchange
MH  - Methamphetamine/*toxicity
MH  - Pregnancy
MH  - *Pregnancy, Animal
MH  - Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects/chemically induced
MH  - Rats
MH  - Retina/*drug effects/*embryology/metabolism
MH  - Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase/metabolism
EDAT- 2006/11/16 09:00
MHDA- 2007/01/11 09:00
CRDT- 2006/11/16 09:00
PHST- 2006/11/16 09:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2007/01/11 09:00 [medline]
PHST- 2006/11/16 09:00 [entrez]
AID - 1074/1/590 [pii]
AID - 10.1196/annals.1369.058 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2006 Aug;1074:590-603. doi: 10.1196/annals.1369.058.