Acute perinatal asphyxia impairs non-spatial memory and alters motor coordination in adult male rats.
A large body of clinical evidence suggests a possible association between perinatal asphyxia and the onset of early, as well as long-term, neurological and psychiatric disorders including cognitive deficits. The present study investigated cognitive and motor function modifications in a well characterized and clinically relevant experimental rat model of human perinatal asphyxia. The results reported here show that adult rats exposed to a single (20 min) asphyctic episode at delivery displayed: (a) a deficit in non-spatial memory, assessed in a novel object recognition task; (b) an impaired motor coordination, measured by the rotarod test. On the other hand, gross motor activity and spatial memory, evaluated in both the Y maze and the Barnes maze, were not affected by perinatal asphyxia. The results of this study provide further insights into the long-term effects of perinatal asphyxia on neurobehavioural functions.
Simola
Nicola
N
Department of Toxicology and Centre of Excellence for Neurobiology of Dependence, University of Cagliari, Via Ospedale 72, 09124 Cagliari, Italy. nicola.simola@virgilio.it
Bustamante
Diego
D
Pinna
Annalisa
A
Pontis
Silvia
S
Morales
Paola
P
Morelli
Micaela
M
Herrera-Marschitz
Mario
M
D000208:Acute Disease; D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001237:Asphyxia / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000502:physiology; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar