Recent human data, and very limited animal data, suggest that cocaine useage in gestation is associated with adverse outcomes in the infant, including altered neurobehavioral development. Our laboratory has recently published data indicating that several postweaning behaviors are altered in rats exposed to 10 mg/kg/d cocaine in utero, and we have unpublished data indicating that this dose may alter hippocampal morphology of offspring. we now propose to establish a dose-effect curve for neurobehavioral effects of prenatal cocaine exposure, expand the range of behaviors tested, establish whether such effects persist when offspring are fostered to undosed surrogate dams, and further investigate neuroanatomical correlates of the altered behavior. Rats will be dosed during gestation with 5, 10, 20, or 40 mg/kg/d cocaine; controls will include uninjected and injected/pairfed controls. All pups will be fostered to undosed surrogates at birth. Offspring will be evaluated on a number of different measures of behavioral development and adult behavior (including representatives of each category suggested for testing by the Collaborative Behavioral Teratology Study), and on several aspects of hippocampal neuromorphology. The proposed work will expand the body on data on neurobehavioral effects of prenatal cocaine exposure (particularly on effects in adult offspring), and will provide a basis for continuing, more detailed studies on mechanisms of prenatal cocaine in our laboratory.
| Shepanek, N A; Smith, R F; Anderson, L A et al. (1995) Behavioral and developmental changes associated with prenatal opiate receptor blockade. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 50:313-9 |
| Smith, R F; Royall, G D; Coss, M (1995) Prenatal cocaine produces dose-dependent suppression of prolactin and growth hormone in neonatal rats. Physiol Behav 58:619-23 |
