Prenatal effects of alprazolam treatment on the immature cerebellum of rats

Int J Dev Neurosci. 2022 Aug 2. doi: 10.1002/jdn.10222. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTThe use of benzodiazepines (BZDs) during pregnancy, especially alprazolam, is common and its impact on the fetal neural tissue is not known. In this sense, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of prenatal treatment with alprazolam on the cerebellum of Wistar rat pups. Thirty animals (24 females and 6 males, CEUA protocol 014/17) were separated into pairs for copulation. Females were divided into three groups: control (CT), treatment 1 (T1, 1.25 mg/animal) and treatment 2 is an overdose (T2, 30 mg/animal). Alprazolam was administered ten days before copulation and throughout pregnancy. We evaluated the number and weight of pups and the macroscopic changes in the brain. Eight neonates (n = 8) from each group were used in the following analyses: cellular and chromatin density, gliosis, synaptic density, inflammation, and oxidative stress. The results showed no significant differences regarding the number of pups, body weight, and macroscopic changes. The morphological study focused on the external granular layer (EGL) that is presented only in the immature cerebellum. Here we detected more cells after alprazolam treatment, the T2 group showed large nuclei and some pyknotic nuclei, also both treated groups presented an increase in the euchromatin density compared to the control. The molecular and biochemical analyses used the total protein extract of the entire cerebellum and showe...
Source: International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Source Type: research