Cocaine treatment before pregnancy differentially affects the anxiety and brain glucose metabolism of lactating rats if performed during adulthood or adolescence.

Cocaine treatment before pregnancy differentially affects the anxiety and brain glucose metabolism of lactating rats if performed during adulthood or adolescence.
Behav Brain Res. 2019 Jul 02;:112070
Authors: Delgado H, Agrati D, Machado L, Reyes L, Savio E, Engler H, Ferreira A
Abstract
Cocaine exposure disrupts the maternal behavior of lactating rats, yet it is less known whether it alters the affective changes that accompany motherhood. As the long-term action of cocaine on anxiety varies according to the developmental stage of the individuals, this study aimed to compare the effect of a chronic treatment with cocaine to adult and adolescent non-pregnant females on their anxiety-like behavior and basal brain metabolic activity during lactation. Thus, adult and adolescent virgin rats were exposed to cocaine (0.0 or 15.0 mg/kg ip) during 10 days and were mated four days later. Anxiety behavior was evaluated on postpartum days 3-4 in the elevated plus maze test, and the basal brain glucose metabolism was determined on postpartum days 7-9 by means of [18F] fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography. Cocaine treatment during adulthood increased the anxiety-like behavior of lactating females whereas its administration during adolescence decreased it. Also, the basal glucose metabolism of the medial prefrontal cortex differed between lactating females treated with cocaine during adulthood and adolescence. These differential effect...

Source: Behavioural Brain Research - July 1, 2019 Category: Neurology Authors: Delgado H, Agrati D, Machado L, Reyes L, Savio E, Engler H, Ferreira A Tags: Behav Brain Res Source Type: research