title: Prenatal exposure to cocaine and enriched environment: effects on social interactions.
abstract: Exposure to cocaine throughout gestation may produce several deleterious outcomes in the offspring that include effects on neurotransmitter systems and structure of the central nervous system. Such changes are most likely correlated with behavioral alterations. Environmental enrichment (EE) in early stages is a factor that affects structural and behavioral development. This article examines the effects, upon social interactions, of EE during the first month of life in rats prenatally exposed to cocaine. Wistar dams were subcutaneously exposed to 60 mg/kg of cocaine divided in two daily doses from gestational day (GD)8 to GD22. Pair-fed controls were given saline vehicle in the same protocol. Offspring were distributed to the different environments in four experimental groups. Group 1: offspring from dams prenatally exposed to cocaine as previously described and reared in EE from postnatal day (PND)1 to PND28; Group 2: pups from cocaine-exposed dams and reared in a standard environment (SE); Group 3: pups from pair-fed saline-exposed dams and reared in EE; Group 4: offspring from saline-exposed dams and reared in SE. On PND21, 24, and 28, rats were examined in several social behavioral categories (play fighting, social investigation, comfort behaviors, and solicitation to play) for 10 min. Animals reared in SE do not display any differences due to treatment in the behavioral categories analyzed. Control offspring reared in EE presented decreased play fighting, decreased solicitation to play, and decreased social investigation compared to the control SE group, while cocaine-exposed animals reared in EE did not present these variations. These results suggest that EE rearing may unmask hidden effects of prenatal cocaine exposure.
authors.affiliation: Neurobehavior Unit, Institute for Molecular and Cellular Biology, University of Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre 823, 4150-180 Porto, Portugal. anam@ibmc.up.pt
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Magalhães
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Summavielle
authors.forename: Pedro
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Melo
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rosa
authors.forename: Maria Amélia
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Tavares
authors.forename: Liliana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: De Sousa
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003042:Cocaine / Q000633:toxicity*; D005260:Female; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D018811:Maternal Exposure; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000139:chemically induced; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D003042:Cocaine