title: Prenatal buprenorphine exposure and sexually dimorphic nonreproductive behaviors in rats.
abstract: This set of experiments examined the effects of prenatal buprenorphine (BUP) exposure on three measures of sexual differentiation in rats. Pregnant female rats were divided into four treatment groups: 0.6 mg/kg BUP, 0.3 mg/kg BUP, a pair-fed control (PFC), and an untreated control (UTC). Drugs were injected starting on gestation day (GD) 6 and continuing through GD 20 with a 48-h interval between drug administrations. Three variables were examined in the offspring: anogenital (AG) distance on postnatal day (PND) 1, spontaneous parental behavior on PNDs 23-28, and saccharin consumption on PNDs 42-55. Whereas prenatal BUP exposure had no effect on AG distance, spontaneous parental behavior was impaired in the 0.6-mg/kg-exposed offspring on two measures: pup-retrieval latencies and pup-directed behaviors. Furthermore, although both control groups and the 0.3-mg/kg-exposed offspring showed the expected sex difference in consumption of a 0.25% saccharin solution, this difference was not displayed by the 0.6-mg/kg-exposed offspring. These findings suggest that exposure to relatively high doses of buprenorphine during development may have long-term effects on behavior.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506-0044, USA. sbarron@pop.uky.edu
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Barron
authors.forename: V M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Chung
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects*; D001835:Body Weight / Q000187:drug effects; D002047:Buprenorphine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D004326:Drinking / Q000187:drug effects; D004435:Eating / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D018811:Maternal Exposure; D009294:Narcotics / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012727:Sex Characteristics
chemical_list: D009294:Narcotics; D002047:Buprenorphine