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Prenatal oxycodone exposure impairs spatial learning and/or memory in rats.

ABSTRACT: Recent changes in demographic patterns of drug use have resulted in the increased non-medical use of prescription opiates. These users are younger and more likely to be female, which has the potential for increasing rates of in utero exposure. Therefore, we developed a rat model that simulates a prescription opiate-dependent woman who becomes pregnant. Adult female Sprague-Dawley rats were treated for 30 days via oral gavage with ascending doses of oxycodone HCl up to a final dose of 15mg/kg/day, which was maintained during breeding and gestation. Controls were treated with water. The adult male offspring of these treated dams were tested on the radial arm maze, the Morris water maze (with a short and a long intertrial interval), and a spatial T-maze. Prenatal oxycodone exposure led to a deficit in the radial arm maze characterized by a greater number of reference memory errors, especially in the beginning of testing. In contrast, in the T-maze, prenatal oxycodone-exposed rats learned the task as well as well as the prenatal water controls. However, they had a modest deficit in retention of the task when assessed 5 days after acquisition training ended. For the Morris water maze, the intertrial interval affected the pattern of learning. While there was no deficit when the training had a short intertrial interval, when there was a long intertrial interval, prenatal oxycodone-exposed rats had poorer acquisition. The spatial learning deficit was characterized by and increased latency to find and a greater distance traveled to the platform in the prenatal oxycodone-exposed rats. These data were corroborated by analysis of the behavioral search strategy, which showed a decreased use of spatial strategies and an increase in non-spatial strategies, especially wall-hugging, in prenatal oxycodone-exposed rats as compared to prenatal water control rats on day 2 of acquisition. These results indicate that prenatal oxycodone exposure consistently impairs learning and memory in a battery of spatial tasks.

SUBMITTER: Davis CP

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2873086 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Prenatal oxycodone exposure impairs spatial learning and/or memory in rats.

Davis Chris P CP Franklin La'tonya M LM Johnson Gabriel S GS Schrott Lisa M LM

Behavioural brain research 20100320 1

Recent changes in demographic patterns of drug use have resulted in the increased non-medical use of prescription opiates. These users are younger and more likely to be female, which has the potential for increasing rates of in utero exposure. Therefore, we developed a rat model that simulates a prescription opiate-dependent woman who becomes pregnant. Adult female Sprague-Dawley rats were treated for 30 days via oral gavage with ascending doses of oxycodone HCl up to a final dose of 15mg/kg/day ...[more]

PMID: 20307587

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Project description:BackgroundAs one of the environmental risk factors for human health, atmospheric fine particulate matter (PM2.5) contributes to cognitive deterioration in addition to respiratory and cardiovascular injuries. Recently, increasing evidence implicates that PM2.5 inhalation can affect neurological functions in offspring, but the sex-specific outcomes and the underlying biological processes are largely unknown.ObjectivesTo observe the influence of prenatal PM2.5 exposure on cognitive performance in offspring, to elucidate the neuronal morphological alterations and possible transcriptional regulation based on mRNA-sequencing (mRNA-Seq) data after birth, and to determine the key components of PM2.5 contributing to the adverse effects.MethodsPregnant C57BL/6J mice were exposed to sterile saline or PM2.5 suspension. Morris water maze test was used to assess the cognitive function in weanling offspring. Microscopic observation was applied to detect neuronal morphogenesis in vivo and in vitro. The cortex tissues from male offspring were collected on postnatal days (PNDs) 1, 7, and 21 for mRNA-Seq analysis. The organic and inorganic components of PM2.5 were separated to assess their contributions using primary cultured neurons.ResultsPrenatal PM2.5 exposure impaired spatial learning and memory in weanling male mice, but not female mice. The sex-specific outcomes were associated with mRNA expression profiles of the cortex during postnatal critical windows, and the annotations in Gene Ontology (GO) of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) revealed that the exposure persistently disrupted the expression of genes involved in neuronal features in male offspring. Consistently, axonal growth impairment and dendritic complexity reduction were observed. Importantly, Homeobox A5 (Hoxa5), a critical transcription factor regulating all of the neuronal morphogenesis-associated hub genes on PNDs 1, 7, and 21, significantly decreased in the cortex of male offspring following PM2.5 exposure. In addition, both inorganic and organic components were harmful to axonal and dendritic growth, with organic components exhibiting stronger inhibition than inorganic ones.ConclusionPrenatal PM2.5 exposure affected spatial learning and memory in male mice by disrupting Hoxa5-mediated neuronal morphogenesis, and the organic components, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), posed more adverse effects than the inorganic components.

Project description:Fluoride and arsenic are two common inorganic contaminants in drinking water that are associated with impairment in child development and retarded intelligence. The present study was conducted to explore the effects on spatial learning, memory, glutamate levels, and group I metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) expression in the hippocampus and cortex after subchronic exposure to fluoride, arsenic, and a fluoride and arsenic combination in rats. Weaned male Sprague-Dawley rats were assigned to four groups. The control rats drank tap water. Rats in the three exposure groups drank water with sodium fluoride (120 mg/L), sodium arsenite (70 mg/L), and a sodium fluoride (120 mg/L) and sodium arsenite (70 mg/L) combination for 3 months. Spatial learning and memory was measured in Morris water maze. mGluR1 and mGluR5 mRNA and protein expression in the hippocampus and cortex was detected using RT-PCR and Western blot, respectively. Compared with controls, learning and memory ability declined in rats that were exposed to fluoride and arsenic both alone and combined. Combined fluoride and arsenic exposure did not have a more pronounced effect on spatial learning and memory compared with arsenic and fluoride exposure alone. Compared with controls, glutamate levels decreased in the hippocampus and cortex of rats exposed to fluoride and combined fluoride and arsenic, and in cortex of arsenic-exposed rats. mGluR5 mRNA and protein expressions in the hippocampus and mGluR5 protein expression in the cortex decreased in rats exposed to arsenic alone. Interestingly, compared with fluoride and arsenic exposure alone, fluoride and arsenic combination decreased mGluR5 mRNA expression in the cortex and protein expression in the hippocampus, suggesting a synergistic effect of fluoride and arsenic. These data indicate that fluoride and arsenic, either alone or combined, can decrease learning and memory ability in rats. The mechanism may be associated with changes of glutamate level and mGluR5 expression in cortex and hippocampus.

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Prenatal oxycodone exposure impairs spatial learning and/or memory in rats.

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Prenatal oxycodone exposure impairs spatial learning and/or memory in rats.

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