title: Enhanced susceptibility of CA3 hippocampus to prenatal nicotine exposure.
abstract: The brain is highly susceptible to adverse effects of drugs of abuse during early phases of life. Prenatal nicotine exposure (PNE), a preventable cause of gestational and infant mortality, can alter neuron wiring and induce sustained deficits in attention and learning. Here, a rat model of PNE (embryonic days 7-21) was used to examine the maturing hippocampus, which encodes new memories and processes emotional memory. Components of synaptic signaling were evaluated at postnatal day 14 (P14), a period of prolific synaptogenesis in rats, to determine if glutamatergic transmission-associated molecules are regulated in subregions of hippocampus as early as P14. PNE resulted in reduced expression of GluN2B, GluA2 and CaMKIIα, but elevated SNAP25 proteins specifically in the CA3 but not CA1. Only CaMKIIα was regulated in dentate gyrus at this age. These results suggest that glutamatergic and synaptic dysregulation of learning and memory may occur in hippocampus in a temporally and subregionally specific manner.
authors.affiliation: 1Laboratory for Neurodevelopment,Department of Anatomy,Howard University College of Medicine,Washington,DC,USA.
authors.forename: O O
authors.initials: OO
authors.lastname: Kalejaiye
authors.affiliation: 1Laboratory for Neurodevelopment,Department of Anatomy,Howard University College of Medicine,Washington,DC,USA.
authors.forename: M C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Gondré-Lewis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D056654:CA3 Region, Hippocampal / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D009538:Nicotine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018722:Nicotinic Agonists / Q000494:pharmacology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000139:chemically induced*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
chemical_list: D018722:Nicotinic Agonists; D009538:Nicotine
keywords: animal; developmental stage; fetus/foetus; maternal pregnancy; outcome/system; small animals