Table 1.
Selected review of animal models of prenatal nicotine exposure
| Authors and Publication date |
Prospective or Retrospective |
Populations species and size |
Measures | Brief results |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animal Models | ||||
| Ajarem & Ahmad, (1998) | Daily 0.1 ml subcutaneous injection of nicotine during pregnancy | Swiss-Webster strain mice | Post-natal body weight, latency to eye-opening, latency to the appearance of body hair, and sensory motor reflexes | Exposure resulted in reduced weight gain and delays in development. Exposure also resulted in increased motor activity into early adulthood. |
| Hagino & Lee (1985) | 175 ug/0.9 ul/hr for 7 days using minipumps | Sprague Dawley rats | H+3 nicotine binding | Exposure resulted in increased Bmax values for H+3 nicotine binding |
| Johns et al., (1982) | Nicotine 3mg/kg twice daily throughout pregnancy | Duncan –Hartley “English short hair” guinea pigs n = 10 nicotine treated and 10 saline treated |
Spontaneous alternation, response to novel alley, black-white discrimination, and reversal beginning | Nicotine exposure resulted in impaired alternating, novel alley entry, and discrimination, and reversal. |
| Johns et al., (1993) | Twice daily doses of 0.5, 1.5, or 2.5 mg/kg nicotine throughout gestation | Duncan –Hartley “English short hair” guinea pigs n = 15 in each group |
Spontaneous alternation, response to novel alley | Prenatal nicotine treatment resulted in deficits in learned and innate behaviors |
| Levin et al., (1993) | 3.4 mg/day of nicotine for 3 weeks and then one week of withdrawal before assessment | Young adult male Sprague Dawley rats | Radial arm maze | Evidence of nicotine-induced cognitive facilitation at least 4 weeks after withdrawal that is not dependent on state dependent learning, nicotinic or muscarinic responsivity |
| Liang et al., (2006) | 0.7 mg/kg nicotine | Sprague-Dawley rat pups | Adult cortical function and auditory learning | Nicotine exposure impairs nicotine regulation of cortical function and auditory learning |
| Martin et al., (1971) | 3.0 mg/kg twice daily or hypoxic episodes | Female rats derived from HOT: Holtzman stock | Appetitive schedules | Nicotine exposed and hypoxic offspring performed more poorly on fixed ratio, variable interval discrimination, and discrimination reversal schedules |
| Paz et al., (2006) | Free choice of nicotine/saccharin or pure water (controls had free choice of saccharin or pure water) | Offspring of C57BL/6J dams | Spontaneous locomotion, fear associated learning, addictive and depression related behaviors | Nicotine exposure associated with increased spontaneous locomotion, preference for cocaine-associated place, and latency to escape in a learned helplessness paradigm |
| Peters & Ngan, (1982) | 1.5 and 3 mg/kg/day of nicotine | Fischer rats | Maternal weight gain, birth weight, righting reflex, temperature regulation, adherence to screen, organ/body weight ratios, maze testing, brain protein content | Nicotine treatment led to deficits in maternal weight gain, birth weight, righting reflex, temperature regulation, adherence to screen, organ/body weight ratios, maze testing, brain protein content |
| Slotkin et al., (1987) | 3 mg/kg twice daily | Sprague Dawley rats | H+3 nicotine binding | Exposure resulted in elevated binding on gestational day 18 |
| Slotkin et al., (1992) | 6 mg/kg/day throughout gestation by minipump | Sprague Dawley rats | Adenylate cyclase activity in brain | Nicotine exposure alters adenylate cyclase activity differently by brain region and neurotransmitter systems |
| Sorenson et al., (1991) | Exposure to 6.0 mg/kg/day of nicotine in drinking water | Sprague Dawley rats n = 12 mothers |
Radial arm maze performance | Nicotine exposure resulted in poorer performance on radial arm maze |
| Van de Kamp & Collins, (1994) | Exposure to saline or 2.0 mg/kg/h nicotine during last half of pregnancy | Offspring of C3H/21bg crosses and C57BL crosses | H+3 nicotine binding | Increased maternal nicotine binding sites but not alpha-I125 bungarotoxin binding sites |
| Yanai et al., (1992) | Exposure to 1.5mg/kg nicotine twice daily on gestation days 9–18 (PreN) or daily SC injections on postnatal days 2–21 (NeoN) | HS/Ibg mice PreN = 12 NeoN = 8 Controls = 18 |
8-Arm maze, Morris water maze, Muscarinic receptor binding | Early or neonatal nicotine exposure decreased performance on the behavioral tasks and increased the number of muscarinic receptors in the hippocampus |