Prenatal Exposure to Cadmium During Organogenesis Impairs Memory in Young Rats

GUMILAR, FERNANDA; BRAS, CRISTINA; AGGIO, PATRICIA; DOMÍNGUEZ, SERGIO; BARTOS, MARIANA; GALLEGOS, CRISTINA; MÓNACO, NINA; MINETTI, ALEJANDRA

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOXICOLOGY

SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC

Año: 2019

1091-5818

Pregnant rats were treated with 0.3 and 0.6 mg cadmium (CdCl2)/kg injected subcutaneously on a daily basis from gestational day7 to day 15 (organogenesis period). One control group was not injected and other received saline. The 45-day-old offspring weretested in a step-down inhibitory avoidance to evaluate short-term and long-term memory and in a radial maze for the study ofspatial memory. These studies showed that gestational exposure to 0.6 mg Cd/kg produced in the male offspring a significantimpairment in the retention of long-term memory evaluated 24 hours after training in the step-down inhibitory avoidance. Theradial maze also demonstrated that the male offspring prenatally exposed to 0.6 mg Cd presented a significant deficit in theretention of spatial memory evaluated 42 days after training. These results demonstrate that the exposure to Cd during organogenesismay affect the retention of some types of memory.