title: Prenatal betamethasone exposure has sex specific effects in reversal learning and attention in juvenile baboons.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We investigated effects of 3 weekly courses of fetal betamethasone (βM) on motivation and cognition in juvenile baboon offspring utilizing the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery.
  
  
  METHODS
  Pregnant baboons (Papio species) received 2 injections of saline control or 175 μg/kg βM 24 hours apart at 0.6, 0.65, and 0.7 gestation. Offspring (saline control female, n = 7 and saline control male, n = 6; βM female [FβM], n = 7 and βM male [MβM], n = 5) were studied at 2.6-3.2 years with a progressive ratio test for motivation, simple discriminations and reversals for associative learning and rule change plasticity, and an intra/extradimensional set-shifting test for attention allocation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  βM exposure decreased motivation in both sexes. In intra/extradimensional testing, FβM made more errors in the simple discrimination reversal (mean difference of errors [FβM - MβM] = 20.2 ± 9.9; P ≤ .05), compound discrimination (mean difference of errors = 36.3 ± 17.4; P ≤ .05), and compound reversal (mean difference of errors = 58 ± 23.6; P < .05) stages as compared to the MβM offspring.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This central nervous system developmental programming adds growing concerns of long-term effects of repeated fetal synthetic glucocorticoid exposure. In summary, behavioral effects observed show sex-specific differences in resilience to multiple fetal βM exposures.
authors.affiliation: Center for Pregnancy and Newborn Research, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, 79229, USA. rodriguezj13@uthscsa.edu
authors.forename: Jesse S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Rodriguez
authors.forename: Nicole R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Zürcher
authors.forename: Kathryn E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Keenan
authors.forename: Thad Q
authors.initials: TQ
authors.lastname: Bartlett
authors.forename: Peter W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Nathanielsz
authors.forename: Mark J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Nijland
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention / Q000187:drug effects*; D001623:Betamethasone / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D005938:Glucocorticoids / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008297:Male; D010215:Papio; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D012193:Reversal Learning / Q000187:drug effects*; D012737:Sex Factors
chemical_list: D005938:Glucocorticoids; D001623:Betamethasone