Regional differences in cortical dendrite morphology following in utero exposure to cocaine

In utero exposure to cocaine has been shown to affect dopaminergic populations of developing neurons in the central nervous system (CNS). To determine if this was a regionally specific effect or the result of a global phenomenon, we used a Golgi-Cox analysis to measure several parameters of neuronal development in murine neurons from frontal cortex, a region of the cortex containing monoamine innervation, and somatosensory cortex, a monoamine sparse part of the cortex. Results of these analyses show that in utero exposure to cocaine affects total dendrite length in histotypical layers III and IV and dendritic volume in layer III of the frontal cortex. These effects are not present in the somatosensory cortex.