Studies on noradrenergic alterations in relation to early phenobarbital-induced behavioral changes.
Mice were exposed to phenobarbital prenatally (B offspring) by feeding their mother 3 g/kg phenobarbital in milled food on gestation days 9-18; control dams received unadulterated milled food. At age 50 days, B offspring had fewer fluorescing noradrenergic (NE) cells in the locus coeruleus than control (P less than 0.001). Hippocampal NE levels were also lower in B than in control offspring, while the cerebellar NE levels of B offspring remained normal. Since B offspring are known to be deficient in their hippocampal eight-arm maze behavior, an attempt was made to reverse the behavioral deficit by transplantation of normal embryonic locus coeruleus NE cells into the impaired hippocampus of B offspring. While sham and NE-transplanted controls needed approximately 2 days to reach criterion in the maze, sham-transplanted B required approximately 5 days to reach criterion (P less than 0.01). The scores of NE-transplanted B mice were similar to B and differed significantly from control (P less than 0.01). Thus, it appears that the hippocampal behavioral deficits studied may not be related to alterations in locus coeruleus-hippocampal NE innervations.
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D002452:Cell Count; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D008125:Locus Coeruleus / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology* / Q000637:transplantation; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D009638:Norepinephrine / Q000378:metabolism / Q000502:physiology*; D010634:Phenobarbital / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects
D009638:Norepinephrine; D010634:Phenobarbital