EFFECT OF COCAINE IN EARLY GESTATION ON STRIATAL DOPAMINE AND NEUROTROPHIC ACTIVITY

Prenatal exposure to the dopamine (DA) agonist cocaine, even if limite d to early gestation, is associated with impaired developmental outcom e in the human infant. We investigated the possible role of neurotroph ic factors in this process by evaluating 4- to 6-d-old New Zealand Whi te rabbit pups (n = 14) born to cocaine-exposed does (30 mg/kg/d s.c. from days 7 to 15 of a 32-d gestation) and control does (sterile H2O). Cocaine exposure reduced striatal dopamine by 46% (t = 231; p < 0.05) and striatal 3,4-dihydroxyphenyl acetic acid by 49% (t = 2.44; p < 0. 05). The number of neuron-specific enolase immunoreactive neurons in m esencephalic cultures incubated with striatal extracts from pups expos ed to cocaine was reduced by 61% relative to the effect of striatal ex tracts from control pups (t = 4.84; p < 0.01). The present results sug gest that the reduction in striatal dopamine observed may result from a cocaine-induced decrease in striatal trophic activity.