Long-term behavioral consequences of prenatal binge toluene exposure in adolescent rats

Abstract EN

The continued abuse of inhaled organic solvents, especially among women of childbearing age, raises the risk of long-term behavioral effects of maternal toluene abuse.

In this study, the effects of short-term exposures to high toluene concentrations (i.e., “binges”) were tested in independent groups of adolescent rats with different toluene treatments: (a) acute: 30-day-old animals exposed for 30min to air (A) or 6,000 ppm toluene (T); (b) prenatal and postnatal: rats exposed to T or A from gestation days 8–20 and re-exposed to T or A from postnatal day (PN) 22 to PN30 (A/A, T/A, A/T, and T/T, resp.).

On PN30, animals were evaluated in different tests.

Postnatal toluene exposure produced anxiolytic-like effects in the burying behavior test, and the T/T group received the highest number of electrical shocks.

Antinociception was observed in the T, A/T, and T/T groups in the hotplate test.

All toluene treatments impaired short-term memory in the object recognition test, but only postnatal exposure impaired long-term memory in the passive avoidance test.

Sensitization occurred in the T/T group in locomotor activity.

These results indicate that prenatal exposure to a concentration of toluene that does not produce evident malformations can modify behavioral toluene’s effects in adolescent rats.