title: The effects of co-administration of opium and morphine with nicotine during pregnancy on spatial learning and memory of adult male offspring rats.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Smoking opium/cigarette is a global health concern. The aim of this study was to examine learning and memory of rat male offsprings whose mothers had been exposed to either opium or morphine with nicotine during pregnancy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Wistar rats were used for the experiments. In the female rats, opium, morphine and nicotine dependencies were induced by daily injections of drug solution for 10 days before mating. Spatial memory was tested by Morris water maze test in male pups at the postnatal day 60. The duration that took until the rats found the platform in the maze and also their swimming speed were recorded.
  
  
  RESULTS
  An increase in the platform finding duration was observed for the pups of dependent mothers in comparison with the control in the training trial (P<0.05). Prenatal exposure to opium/morphine and nicotine significantly decreased the time spent in the trigger zone to find the hidden platform (P<0.05) but had no significant effect on the swimming speed in the probe test. However, no significant difference was observed in the learning and memory behavior of offspring whose mothers received morphine, opium, nicotine or the co-administration of either morphine or opium with nicotine.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present study showed that the opium, morphine and nicotine abuse and co-administration of opium/morphine with nicotine during pregnancy may cause deficits in spatial learning of male rat offspring. Based on our data, no synergistic effects of co-drug administration were observed on learning and memory in male rat offspring.
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Gholamreza
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sepehri
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Shahrnaz
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Parsania
authors.affiliation: Mashhad Cognitive Neuroscience Research Center and Dept. of Physiology, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
authors.forename: Mousa-Al-Reza
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Hajzadeh
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences Kerman, Iran ; Reproductive Biology and Anatomy Department, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Tahereh
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Haghpanah
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Vahid
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sheibani
authors.affiliation: Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Kouros
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Divsalar
authors.affiliation: Department of physiology, Arsanjan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Fars, Iran.
authors.forename: Shahnaz
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shekarforoush
authors.affiliation: NPRC and Physiology Dept., School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran ; Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences Kerman, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Reza
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Afarinesh
keywords: Co-administration; Learning; Morphine; Morris Water Maze; Nicotine dependency; Opium