Developmental treatment with difluoromethylornithine has few effects on behavior or body weight in Sprague-Dawley rats.
Developmental difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) treatment reduces cerebellar weight [Neuroscience 17 (1986) 399, Neurotoxicol. Teratol. 22 (2000) 415, Behav. Brain Res. 126 (2001) 135], but the functional alterations resulting from this have been little investigated. Here, Sprague-Dawley rats were subcutaneously injected with 500 mg/kg DFMO on postnatal days (PNDs) 5-12 and a comprehensive set of behavioral assessments measured early developmental behaviors (righting reflex, negative geotaxis), motor coordination, acoustic startle, short- and long-term activity, social behaviors, anxiety, and spatial learning and memory. DFMO treatment appeared to cause a decreased latency to perform the negative geotaxis behavior on PNDs 8-10 and increased latency to hang by the forelimbs on PNDs 12-14. Our previous study did not indicate similar effects, but age at testing differed between the two studies. DFMO treatment caused a decreased latency to maximum acoustic startle response in both the acoustic startle paradigm and in the pulse-alone trials of the prepulse inhibition test. This DFMO treatment paradigm induced a 10% decrease in adult cerebellar weight [Behav. Brain Res. 126 (2001) 135], but the results here imply that such developmental stunting has few functional alterations.
Ferguson
Sherry A
SA
HFT-132, Division of Neurotoxicology, National Center for Toxicological Research/FDA, 3900 NCTR Road, Jefferson, AR 72079, USA. sferguson@nctr.fda.gov
Cada
Amy M
AM
D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects*; D001835:Body Weight / Q000187:drug effects*; D001921:Brain / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development; D004291:Dominance-Subordination; D004435:Eating / Q000187:drug effects; D000518:Eflornithine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000187:drug effects; D005123:Eye / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development; D005260:Female; D005552:Forelimb / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000187:drug effects; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000187:drug effects; D004856:Postural Balance / Q000187:drug effects; D011247:Pregnancy; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000187:drug effects; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000187:drug effects; D012022:Reflex, Acoustic / Q000187:drug effects; D012439:Saccharin; D012737:Sex Factors; D012919:Social Behavior
D004791:Enzyme Inhibitors; D012439:Saccharin; D000518:Eflornithine