Prenatal melamine exposure impairs cognitive flexibility and hippocampal synaptic plasticity in adolescent and adult female rats

Publication date: Available online 10 September 2019Source: Pharmacology Biochemistry and BehaviorAuthor(s): Lei An, Jia Li, Le Luo, Peidong Huang, Peidong Liu, Chunzhi Tang, Wei SunAbstractPrenatal melamine exposure (PME) affects spatial cognition in adolescent male rats and impairs synaptic functions. Strikingly, these effects can persist into adulthood. The current experiments examined whether PME-induced behavioral defects would be observed in female offspring, and how these effects varied with age (adolescent and adult). After female rats were exposed to melamine through their entire gestational period (GD), their spatial cognition was tested using water maze tasks at postnatal day 36 (PD36) and PD90. Long-term potentiation (LTP) and long-term depression (LTD) were recorded from the hippocampal Schaffer collaterals to the CA1 area. Results indicated that PME led to substantial reversal learning deficits and disrupted LTD at both PD36 and PD90. Additionally, PME did not affect LTP, although a lower fEPSP slope was observed in the adolescent PME-treated group than in the adult PME-treated group. Additionally, PME did not induce a horizontal shift in the synaptic modification threshold but caused a downward shift of the frequency–response curve at the low-frequency stimulation (LFS) of 1.0 Hz. However, the paired-pulse facilitation (PPF) ratio and the input/output function were not affected. Although the expression of both NR1 and NR2B subunits of NMDA receptors were di...
Source: Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior - Category: Biochemistry Source Type: research