ArticlesPrenatal Intravenous Cocaine Adversely Affects Attentional Processing in Preweanling Rats
Section snippets
Animals
Nulliparous female Sprague–Dawley rats were obtained from Harlan Sprague–Dawley, Inc. (Indianapolis, IN) at approximately 10–12 weeks of age (225–249 g), placed into quarantine for 1 week, and subsequently moved to the animal colony. The animals were maintained according to NIH guidelines in AAALAC-accredited facilities. Food (Pro-Lab Rat, Mouse, Hamster Chow No. 3000, Cincinnati Lab Supply, Cincinnati, OH) and water were available ad libitum. The animal facility was maintained at 21°C ± 2°C,
Results
Gestational weight gain of the dams was not significantly affected by IV injections of cocaine during the last 2 weeks of pregnancy (Table 1). The analysis of percentage weekly weight gain failed to detect any significant effect of the prenatal cocaine exposure and also failed to detect any effect of the catheterization, daily injection, and handling. The analysis of mean total gestational weight gain (Table 2) similarly failed to find any significant effects of prenatal cocaine exposure or the
Discussion
Administration of cocaine to pregnant rats by a clinically relevant route (IV) exerted an adverse effect on attentional processes in the offspring. The major effects on the HR-OR were fourfold: 1) Elicitation of the HR-OR was significantly greater in prenatal cocaine-exposed pups relative to controls on PD16 and 21, but not on PD12; 2) within-session habituation was noted in prenatal cocaine-exposed pups, but not control pups, during the acquisition trial series on PD16 (habituation was neither
Acknowledgements
This work was supported, in part, by grants from the University of Kentucky Medical Center Research Fund, the Tobacco and Health Research Institute, and the National Institutes of Health (National Institute on Drug Abuse, DA09160, DA11337, and DA06638; National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, ES06259). The Tobacco and Health Research Institute (THRI) is an administrative unit of the University of Kentucky and is not affiliated with the Tobacco Research Council nor does it receive
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