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Cocaine is pharmacologically active in the nonhuman primate fetal brain.

ABSTRACT: Cocaine use during pregnancy is deleterious to the newborn child, in part via its disruption of placental blood flow. However, the extent to which cocaine can affect the function of the fetal primate brain is still an unresolved question. Here we used PET and MRI and show that in third-trimester pregnant nonhuman primates, cocaine at doses typically used by drug abusers significantly increased brain glucose metabolism to the same extent in the mother as in the fetus (approximately 100%). Inasmuch as brain glucose metabolism is a sensitive marker of brain function, the current findings provide evidence that cocaine use by a pregnant mother will also affect the function of the fetal brain. We are also unique in showing that cocaine's effects in brain glucose metabolism differed in pregnant (increased) and nonpregnant (decreased) animals, which suggests that the psychoactive effects of cocaine are influenced by the state of pregnancy. Our findings have clinical implications because they imply that the adverse effects of prenatal cocaine exposure to the newborn child include not only cocaine's deleterious effects to the placental circulation, but also cocaine's direct pharmacological effect to the developing fetal brain.

SUBMITTER: Benveniste H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2824386 | biostudies-other | 2010 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Project description:Little is known about the repertoire of nonhuman primate kidney genes expressed throughout development. The present work establishes an understanding of the primate renal transcriptome at different stages of fetal development and defines the framework of gene expression in the context of renal maturation, which provides a basis for identifying deviations in transcriptome expression resulting from suboptimal conditions during renal development. The baboon kidney transcriptome was characterized at 60 days gestation (DG), 90DG, 125DG, 160DG and adulthood (6-12 years) using human genome arrays to identify differential gene expression in the context of biological pathways and hierarchical clusters. Whole genome expression profiling showed 11,331 genes that were expressed during kidney development, 4,698 of which were differentially expressed among the developmental time points. Pathway analysis indicated activation of annotated pathways previously reported to be important to kidney development and pathways not reported as relevant to kidney development. QRT-PCR for genes central to these pathways validated expression profiles and revealed differences between males and females at specific times in gestation. Hierarchical clustering indicated that two clusters best fit the data, one containing genes that increased in expression from 60DG to adult and one that decreased. Cluster analysis also revealed gene splice variants with discordant expression profiles during development. For example, SMAD4, which is central to Wnt signaling, TGF-β signaling and cell cycle, showed up-regulation of the full-length splice variant during development and down-regulation of a shorter variant that is missing DNA binding and protein heterotrimerization domains suggesting decreased inhibition of cell proliferation, which may impact renal cell number and maturation. This study provides the first detailed genetic analysis of the developing primate kidney, and our findings of discordant expression of gene splice variants suggest that gene arrays likely provide a simplified view and demonstrate the need to study the fetal renal proteome.

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Cocaine is pharmacologically active in the nonhuman primate fetal brain.

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