Effect of prenatal fluoxetine (Prozac) exposure on brain serotonin neurons in prepubescent and adult male rat offspring.

The present study examines the consequences of prenatal fluoxetine exposure on brain serotonin [5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT)] neurons in male offspring. Pregnant rats were administered either saline or fluoxetine (10 mg/kg s.c.) daily from gestational day 13 through gestational day 20. The biochemical status of brain 5-HT neurons was assessed in prepubescent and adult offspring by measuring 1) the 5-HT and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid content, 2) the density of [3H]paroxetine-labeled 5-HT uptake sites and 3) the ability of the 5-HT-releasing drug p-chloroamphetamine to reduce 5-HT content. Biochemical parameters were assessed in the frontal cortex, hypothalamus, hippocampus, striatum and midbrain. Comparative effects on dopamine and norepinephrine content in selected regions were also determined. Prenatal exposure to fluoxetine significantly reduced (-28%) 5-HT content in the frontal cortex of prepubescent but not adult male offspring. In contrast, in adult progeny prenatal fluoxetine exposure produced a significant decrease only in midbrain 5-HT content (-28%). In addition, p-chloroamphetamine markedly reduced 5-HT content in all brain regions examined, but the ability of p-chloroamphetamine to reduce 5-HT content was significantly attenuated only in the midbrain of adult progeny prenatally exposed to fluoxetine. No significant differences were observed between control and fluoxetine-exposed progeny with respect to brain 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid content, the 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid/5-HT ratio or the density of 5-HT uptake sites, regardless of the brain region examined or the age of the offspring. These data provide additional evidence that prenatal exposure to fluoxetine can produce limited, rather than global, changes in brain 5-HT neurons in male rat offspring and that the effects observed are region-specific and age-dependent. The potential functional consequences and clinical implications of these alterations in brain 5-HT systems remain to be elucidated.

• Publication year

  1997

• Venue

  Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics

• Publication date

  1997-01-01

• Fields of study

  Biology, Medicine, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1016/s0022-3565(24)36398-0PMID 8996191
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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