PMID- 11325407
DA - 20010430
DCOM- 20010719
IS - 0091-3057
VI - 68
IP - 3
DP - 2001 Mar
TI - Exposure to ethanol and nicotine during the brain growth spurt: spatial DMP performance in male rats.
PG - 515-23 AB - Male Long-Evans rats were reared artificially and, using a 2x2 design, were exposed from postnatal days (PD) 6-9 to ethanol (ET: 6.5 g kg(-1) day(-1) "binge" exposure) and/or nicotine bitartrate (NIC: 6 mg kg(-1) day(-1) continuous exposure) via gastrostomy tubes. Controls were administered maltose-dextrin in amounts isocaloric to ET and/or sodium bitartrate. A fifth suckled-control group was reared normally. NIC accelerated eye opening on PD 14; whereas ET delayed eye opening and hindlimb support on PD 16. Beginning in postnatal week 7, rats were tested on a spatial delayed matching-to-place (DMP) version of the Morris water maze, which entailed a series of problems, each consisting of search and recall trials, that required the rats to use extra-maze cues to locate a hidden escape platform. In Phase 1 of testing, the ET-exposed groups were impaired in the recall trials, but there was no effect of NIC. A longer encoding time (45 vs. 10 s) improved performance across all groups. In contrast, acute administration of NIC (0.1 mg/kg ip) immediately prior to testing in Phase 2 failed to improve performance in any group. In conclusion, these results confirm previous findings of impaired spatial DMP-task performance in ET-exposed rats and further suggest that these memory deficits are amenable to amelioration.
AD - Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, N2L 3G1, Waterloo, ON,
[emd]
FAU - Girard, T A
AU - Girard TA
FAU - Xing, H
AU - Xing H
FAU - Ward, G R
AU - Ward GR
FAU - Nguyen, H
AU - Nguyen H
FAU - Wainwright, P E
AU - Wainwright PE
LA - eng
PT - Journal Article
CY - United States
TA - Pharmacol Biochem Behav
JID - 0367050
RN - 0 (Central Nervous System Depressants)
RN - 0 (Nicotinic Agonists)
RN - 486-56-6 (Cotinine)
RN - 54-11-5 (Nicotine)
RN - 64-17-5 (Ethanol)
SB - IM
MH - Animal
MH - Animals, Newborn
MH - Body Weight/drug effects
MH - Brain/drug effects/*growth & development
MH - Central Nervous System Depressants/blood/*pharmacology
MH - Cotinine/blood
MH - Cues
MH - Ethanol/blood/*pharmacology
MH - Male
MH - Maze Learning/*drug effects
MH - Nicotine/*pharmacology
MH - Nicotinic Agonists/*pharmacology
MH - Organ Weight/drug effects
MH - Rats
MH - Rats, Long-Evans
MH - Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
MH - Weaning
EDAT- 2001/04/28 10:00
MHDA- 2001/07/20 10:01
AID - S009130570100452X [pii]
PST - ppublish
SO - Pharmacol Biochem Behav 2001 Mar;68(3):515-23.