Abstract
The development of rats was studied for 3 postnatal weeks after prenatal medication with diazepam (10 mg/kg/day), phenytoin (50 mg/kg/day), or tofizopam (50 mg/kg twice daily) given by gastric intubation from day 7 to 21 of pregnancy. The treatments had no effect on the litter size. There were also no differences between the groups in a battery of tests for development (negative geotaxis, righting reflex, cliff avoidance, rotarod, passive avoidance), but the activity spurt seen at postnatal days 18–21 was missing in pups of diazepam-treated mothers. The number of benzodiazepine receptors and their affinity for tritiated flunitrazepam developed similarly in all of the rat groups. Thus, the transient changes in motor development seen 2–3 weeks after birth of rats whose mothers received diazepam during pregnancy do not seem to be related to changes in ontogenesis of benzodiazepine recpetors.
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© 1986 Springer-Verlag
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Laitinen, K., MacDonald, E., Saano, V. (1986). Effects of Diazepam, Tofizopam or Phenytoin During Foetal Development on Subsequent Behaviour and Benzodiazepine Receptor Characteristics in Rats. In: Chambers, C.M., Chambers, P.L., Tuomisto, J. (eds) Toxic Interfaces of Neurones, Smoke and Genes. Archives of Toxicology, vol 9. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-71248-7_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-71248-7_6
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