title: Ascorbic Acid ameliorates nicotine exposure induced impaired spatial memory performances in rats.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The long lasting behavioural and cognitive impairments in offspring prenatally exposed to nicotine have been confirmed in animal models. In the present study, we investigated the effect of ascorbic acid on prenatal nicotine exposure induced behavioral deficits in male offspring of rats.
  
  
  METHODS
  The pregnant Wistar dams were divided into four groups of six rats: control, vehicle control, nicotine and nicotine+ascorbic acid groups. The nicotine group received daily dose of subcutaneous injections of 0.96 mg/kg body weight (bw) nicotine free base throughout gestation. Pregnant dams in nicotine+ascorbic acid group were first given nicotine free base (0.96 mg/kg bw/day; subcutaneous route) followed by ascorbic acid (50 mg/kg bw/day, orally) daily throughout gestation. The cognitive function of male offspring of all the experimental groups was studied using Morris water maze test at postnatal day 40.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Prenatal nicotine exposure altered spatial learning and memory in male offspring. However, treatment with ascorbic acid ameliorated these changes in rats.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Ascorbic acid supplementation was found to be effective in preventing the prenatal nicotine exposure induced cognitive deficits in rat offspring to some extent.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Campus), Manipal University, Madhav Nagar, Manipal- 576 104, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: S R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Sirasanagandla
authors.affiliation: MBBS Programme, Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Campus), Manipal University, Manipal- 576 104, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: R K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Rooben
authors.affiliation: MBBS Programme, Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Campus), Manipal University, Manipal- 576 104, Karnataka, India.
authors.lastname: Rajkumar
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Campus), Manipal University, Madhav Nagar, Manipal- 576 104, Karnataka, India. sareeshnn@yahoo.co.in.
authors.forename: S N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Narayanan
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Melaka Manipal Medical College (Manipal Campus), Manipal University, Madhav Nagar, Manipal- 576 104, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jetti