PMID- 8997505
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 19970415
LR  - 20190830
IS  - 0165-3806 (Print)
IS  - 0165-3806 (Linking)
VI  - 97
IP  - 2
DP  - 1996 Dec 23
TI  - Prenatal nicotine effects on memory in rats: pharmacological and behavioral 
      challenges.
PG  - 207-15
AB  - Cigarette smoking during pregnancy has been shown in a variety of studies to be 
      associated with cognitive deficits in the children. Nicotine administration to 
      rats during gestation has been found to cause subtle cognitive effects in the 
      offspring. Some individual differences in cognitive impairment may be related to 
      prenatal nicotine effects on noradrenergic (NE) systems. In the current study, 10 
      Sprague-Dawley rat dams were infused with approximately 2 mg/kg/day of nicotine 
      ditartrate via osmotic minipumps and 10 control dams were exposed to 
      vehicle-containing minipumps from gestational day (GD) 4-20. Starting on 
      postnatal day (PND) 50, the offspring were tested for T-maze rewarded spatial 
      alternation with intertrial intervals of 0, 10, 20, or 40 s. There was a sex- and 
      delay-dependent effect of prenatal nicotine exposure on T-maze alternation. 
      Nicotine-exposed males showed a significant deficit at the 0 s delay. In 
      radial-arm maze (RAM) acquisition training there were no significant nicotine 
      effects. However, significant nicotine-related effects were seen with subsequent 
      behavioral and pharmacological challenges in the RAM. Changing the RAM testing 
      location to an identical maze in a different room elicited a significant choice 
      accuracy deficit in the prenatal nicotine-exposed rats compared with controls. 
      Acute nicotine challenge did not cause any differential effects in the prenatal 
      nicotine and control groups. During the isoproterenol (beta-NE agonist) challenge 
      phase there appeared a significant facilitation of choice accuracy and speeding 
      of response in the prenatal nicotine exposure group which was not seen in the 
      control group. The alpha-NE agonist phenylpropanolamine caused a significant 
      deficit in control females but not in the females prenatally exposed to nicotine. 
      No differential effects of the alpha-NE antagonist phenoxybenzamine were seen in 
      the prenatal nicotine and control groups. Throughout RAM testing there was a 
      significant sex effect with males having better choice accuracy than females. 
      These results demonstrate that the persisting cognitive effects of prenatal 
      exposure to 2 mg/kg/day cause subtle effects in cognitive performance which can 
      be elicited with behavioral and pharmacological challenge. These results also 
      support previous studies suggesting the involvement of NE systems in persisting 
      effects of prenatal nicotine exposure.
FAU - Levin, E D
AU  - Levin ED
AD  - Department of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
FAU - Wilkerson, A
AU  - Wilkerson A
FAU - Jones, J P
AU  - Jones JP
FAU - Christopher, N C
AU  - Christopher NC
FAU - Briggs, S J
AU  - Briggs SJ
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PL  - Netherlands
TA  - Brain Res Dev Brain Res
JT  - Brain research. Developmental brain research
JID - 8908639
RN  - 0 (Nicotinic Agonists)
RN  - 0 (Receptors, Adrenergic)
RN  - 6M3C89ZY6R (Nicotine)
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - Drug Evaluation, Preclinical
MH  - Female
MH  - Infusion Pumps
MH  - Male
MH  - Maze Learning/*drug effects
MH  - Memory Disorders/*chemically induced/physiopathology
MH  - Nicotine/*pharmacology
MH  - Nicotinic Agonists/*pharmacology
MH  - Osmotic Pressure
MH  - Pregnancy
MH  - *Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects
MH  - Rats
MH  - Rats, Sprague-Dawley
MH  - Receptors, Adrenergic/drug effects/*physiology
MH  - Sex Distribution
EDAT- 1996/12/23 00:00
MHDA- 1996/12/23 00:01
CRDT- 1996/12/23 00:00
PHST- 1996/12/23 00:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 1996/12/23 00:01 [medline]
PHST- 1996/12/23 00:00 [entrez]
AID - S0165380696001447 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/s0165-3806(96)00144-7 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Brain Res Dev Brain Res. 1996 Dec 23;97(2):207-15. doi: 
      10.1016/s0165-3806(96)00144-7.