Abstract
The aim of the present study was to examine the cross-sensitization induced by prenatal methamphetamine (MA) exposure to adult amphetamine (AMP) treatment in male and female rats. Rat mothers received a daily injection of MA (5 mg/kg) or saline throughout the gestation period. Adult male and female offspring (prenatally MA- or saline-exposed) were administered with AMP (5 mg/kg) or saline (1 ml/kg) in adulthood. Behaviour in unknown environment was examined in open field test (Laboras), active drug-seeking behaviour in conditioned place preference test (CPP), spatial memory in the Morris water maze (MWM), and levels of corticosterone (CORT) were analyzed by enzyme immunoassay (EIA). Our data demonstrate that in Laboras test, AMP treatment in adulthood increased general locomotion (time and distance travelled) regardless of the prenatal exposure and sex, while AMP increased exploratory activity (rearing) only in prenatally MA-exposed animals. AMP induced sensitization only in male rats, but not in females when tested drug-seeking behaviour in the CPP test. In the spatial memory MWM test, AMP worsened the performance only in females, but not in males. On the other hand, males swam faster after chronic AMP treatment regardless of the prenatal drug exposure. EIA analysis of CORT levels demonstrated higher level in females in all measurement settings. In males, prenatal MA exposure and chronic adult AMP treatment decreased CORT levels. Thus, our data demonstrated that adult AMP treatment affects behaviour of adult rats, their spatial memory and stress response in sex-specific manner. The effect is also influenced by prenatal drug exposure.
Highlights
The abuse of drugs by women during pregnancy is raising issue of recent years
The locomotion decreased with the time of the Laboras test dependently on the AMP treatment in adulthood [F(5, 480) = 9.64; p
The present data demonstrate that adult AMP treatment may affect behaviour of adult rats, their memory and stress response in sex-specific manner and may be affected by prenatal drug exposure
Summary
The abuse of drugs by women during pregnancy is raising issue of recent years. Since psychoactive drugs can cross blood-brain barrier (one of the most impervious barriers of the body), the placental barrier could be passed even easier (Kitaichi et al, 2003). Many drugs can pass into a nursing mother’s breast milk and expose a developing infant to drugs even postnatally (Won et al, 2001). Psychostimulants as representatives of the “hard” drugs abused during pregnancy is a risk to the foetus in any case, the mechanism of action of drugs on the foetus has not been fully elucidated. Even if a sufficiently large group data collected during early postnatal period, it is not practically possible to maintain this large study group of dependent children until their maturity period.
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