Buspirone effect on Prenatal Ethanol Exposure Damage

MIROCHNIC, S; EVRARD, SG; DUHALDE VEGA, M; SIERRA,V; BRUSCO,A

Pinamar, Argentina

Congreso; XX Annual Meeting of the Argentine Society for Neurochemistry (SAN).; 2005

The prenatal ethanol exposure (PEE) altered the 5HT System development. The abnormal development is demonstrated by a reduced number of 5HT neurons, decreased 5HT reuptake sites and lower concentration of 5HT. After the stimulation of its 5HT1A receptors, astrocytes release the S100b protein, that have neurotrophic actions during development. The expression of this protein is affected after PEE and function as a neurite extention factor interacting with different cytoskeletal proteins such as MAP2. We studied the effect of buspirone (B) treatment during PEE in the frontal cortex. Female Wistar rats were exposed to ethanol 6.6% (v/v) in drinking water for 6 weeks before breeding and during gestation; control groups received water. Pregnant rats were divided into four treatment groups: CS (ctrol-saline), CB (ctrol-B), ES (EtOH-saline) and EB (EtOH-B). Between E13 and E20 each group received a daily subcutaneous dose (4.5 mg/kg) of B or an equivalent volume of saline. EtOH was discontinued at P0. On P21, P35 and P60 pup’s brains were processed by immunohistochemistry using antibodies directed to MAP2. Relative area of MAP2+ fibers were measured by computer-assisted image analysis. The results showed significant differences in ES group but not in CS, CB and EB at different ages. Thus, we showed a normalization of the measured parameters when buspirone was prenatally administered to PEE rats