BODY-WEIGHT GAIN AND HIPPOCAMPAL VOLUMES OF RATS EXPOSED NEONATALLY TO PSYCHOSTIMULANTS

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 1993

Authors

tavares, ma (Author) FMUP; silva, mc (Author) ICBAS

Journal

Title: Brain Research

Vol. 619

Pages: 137-145

ISSN: 0006-8993

Publisher: Elsevier

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 23 Citations

Scopus - 16 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Medical and Health sciences > Basic medicine

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-001-MS6

DOI: 10.1016/0006-8993(93)91605-R

Abstract (EN): There is increasing evidence that early exposure to psychostimulants exerts long-lasting effects on the central nervous system. Yet, analysis of the body weight gain and volumetric determinations of brain areas have not been performed by comparing the effects of neonatal exposure to cocaine and amphetamine. Male (Wistar) rats were given cocaine hydrochloride (15 mg/kg body weight/day), D-amphetamine sulphate (25 mg/kg body weight/day) or saline, s.c., twice daily, from postnatal day (PND) 1 to 30. The experimental design used random permuted blocks of 4 males per litter - 9 litters for body weight gain evolution and 9 for the analysis of body, brain and cerebellum at PND30. Volumes of the hippocampal formation were calculated in horizontal serial sections of celloidin embedded material from 6 animals per group. The analysis of body weight gain evolution was performed using discriminant functions and allowed the separation of the amphetamine group from the remainder and the control from the psychostimulants group; weight gain in PND 24-30 period presented the highest discriminating power. The mean volume of the hippocampal formation was lower in the psychostimulants group, and the differences were significant in the molecular layer of the dentate gyrus of cocaine and amphetamine exposed animals when compared with the controls. The functional repercussions of the body weight gain allied to the decreased volume of the dentate gyrus molecular layer after early psychostimulant exposure are likely to be noteworthy since, whether permanent or simply representing a developmental delay, they will induce a reduction in the input information towards the hippocampus which may be relevant to the behavioral effects described after exposure to psychostimulants, during the period of active development.

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 9