title: Eight-arm maze performance, neophobia, and hippocampal cholinergic alterations after prenatal oxazepam in mice.
abstract: Outbred CD-1 mice were exposed to oxazepam (15 mg/kg PO twice/day) on days 12-16 of fetal life, i.e., at a critical ontogenetic stage of Type II benzodiazepine (BDZ) receptor increase, and fostered at birth to untreated dams. At adulthood, radial arm maze performance, activity-habituation test in an open-field arena (either single 15-min test or three 5-min sessions at 24-h intervals), approach to a novel stimulus object, and amphetamine or scopolamine effects thereon were assessed in male progeny. Overall, the oxazepam exposed (OX) mice were much less efficient in the radial arm maze task than the vehicle exposed (VEH) animals. Pre-test scopolamine injection, but not amphetamine, significantly impaired the arm maze performance of OX mice when compared with the corresponding VEH-scopolamine animals. In separate nonlearned behavioral tasks, prenatal oxazepam did not affect either baseline activity levels in the open field or the response to the amphetamine and the scopolamine challenge, while it considerably increased the latency of first approach to a novel object and produced a deficit of habituation in the course of the subsequent exploratory period. Concomitant investigation at the neurochemical level showed that the adult OX animals had a significant increase in both Bmax and in the affinity (Kd) of cholinergic muscarinic receptors in the hippocampal formation when compared to the vehicle-exposed controls.
authors.affiliation: Section of Behavioral Pathophysiology, Istituto Superiore di Sanitá, Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Laviola
authors.forename: C G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Pick
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yanai
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Alleva
mesh_terms: D000661:Amphetamine / Q000494:pharmacology; D000818:Animals; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000187:drug effects*; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000187:drug effects*; D007858:Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D051379:Mice; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000187:drug effects; D009619:Nociceptors / Q000187:drug effects; D010076:Oxazepam / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010275:Parasympathetic Nervous System / Q000187:drug effects*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects; D011976:Receptors, Muscarinic / Q000187:drug effects; D012601:Scopolamine / Q000494:pharmacology
chemical_list: D011976:Receptors, Muscarinic; D010076:Oxazepam; D000661:Amphetamine; D012601:Scopolamine