Amphetamine-induced activity after fetal alcohol exposure and undernutrition in rats

Abstract

Behavioral responses to amphetamine were examined in 28- and 42-day-old rats whose mothers consumed a liquid diet consisting of 35% ethanol-derived calories (EDC) during pregnancy. Offspring of pair-fed (0% EDC) and ad lib chow (LC) dams were included as controls. Animals received 0.0, 0.5, 1.0, or 2.0 mg/kg/ml d-amphetamine prior to single 2-hr tests in automated activity monitors. At 28 days of age, when there were no differences in activity after saline injection, 35% EDC males were more active (measured by distance traveled) than LC and 0% EDC males following treatment with 2.0 mg/kg amphetamine. Thirty-five percent EDC females exhibited brief reductions in activity relative to LC females but were not different from 0% EDC females at 28 days of age following 2.0 mg/kg amphetamine. When treated with 1.0 mg/kg amphetamine, 28-day-old 0% EDC males were less active than LC and 35% EDC males, who did not differ from each other at this dose. At 42 days of age, animals from both liquid diet groups were less active than LC controls following 2 mg/kg amphetamine. These results suggest that both prenatal alcohol exposure and undernutrition may influence the postnatal functional status of catecholamine systems but that the nature of those functional changes varies with type of prenatal insult, sex and age of the animal at testing.