title: The effect of prenatal diazepam exposure on TNF-alpha production by rat splenocytes.
abstract: Prenatal exposure to diazepam and other benzodiazepines (BDZ) has been found to result in a marked reduction of T-lymphocyte proliferation during postnatal development of rats. In search for pathogenic changes underlying this effect, we investigated the mitogen lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and concanavalin A (ConA) stimulated release of tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha by mixed splenocytes of male offspring from Long Evans rats treated with 1.25 mg/kg per day diazepam from gestational day 14 to 20. In response to LPS, TNF-alpha release was found to be significantly lower in mixed splenocytes of two- and four-week-old treated than in control offspring. However, at eight weeks of age, prenatally diazepam-treated animals showed a significantly higher LPS-induced TNF-alpha release than control rats. Since monocytes/macrophages represent a major source of TNF-alpha, additional experiments were performed on purified spleen macrophages and lymphocytes stimulated with LPS. TNF-alpha release was only detectable in supernatants of adherent spleen macrophages and not in supernatants of lymphocytes. Thus, our data indicate that a disturbance in TNF-alpha release from macrophages is involved in the deficient immune response of prenatally diazepam-exposed rats.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Pharmacology, University of Zürich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Schreiber
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Frei
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lichtensteiger
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schlumpf
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002455:Cell Division / Q000187:drug effects; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003208:Concanavalin A / Q000494:pharmacology; D003592:Cytophotometry; D003975:Diazepam / Q000633:toxicity*; D005260:Female; D005455:Fluorescent Antibody Technique; D008070:Lipopolysaccharides / Q000494:pharmacology; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D008264:Macrophages / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D010641:Phenotype; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D051381:Rats; D013154:Spleen / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000096:biosynthesis*
chemical_list: D008070:Lipopolysaccharides; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D003208:Concanavalin A; D003975:Diazepam