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Updated: Aug 19, 2026
Moderate Prenatal Alcohol Exposure and Quantification of Social Behavior in Adult Rats
Published on: December 14, 2014
Cross-generational effect of prenatal morphine exposure on neurobehavioral development of rat pups
R Slamberová1, M A Riley, I Vathy
1Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Ave., Ull. 111, Bronx, NY 10461, USA.
Insights
Prenatal opiate exposure causes developmental issues across generations in rats. Offspring of exposed mothers showed slower reflexes, lower birth weight, and reduced anogenital distances, indicating lasting harm.
Area of Science:
- Developmental toxicology
- Neuroscience
- Reproductive biology
Background:
- Prenatal opiate exposure can negatively impact fetal development.
- Long-term physical and neurobehavioral changes may occur postnatally.
- Understanding trans-generational effects is crucial for evaluating teratogenic risks.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the cross-generational effects of prenatal morphine exposure in Sprague-Dawley rats.
- To assess developmental outcomes in both directly exposed pups and their offspring.
Main Methods:
- Pregnant rats received daily subcutaneous injections of saline or morphine (10 mg/kg) during gestational days 11-18.
- Evaluated litter size, sex ratio, anogenital distances (AGDs), righting reflex, and body weight in first and second generations.
- Compared outcomes between control and morphine-exposed groups across generations.
Main Results:
- Both first and second generation pups exposed prenatally to morphine showed delayed righting reflex.
- Second generation pups exhibited slower righting reflexes than the first generation.
- Second generation pups had lower body weight and decreased AGDs in males compared to the first generation, irrespective of drug exposure.
Conclusions:
- Prenatal morphine exposure induces adverse effects that extend to subsequent generations.
- These findings highlight the potential for long-term, trans-generational consequences of maternal opiate abuse.
- The study provides novel insights into the teratogenic effects of prenatal opiate exposure.
Abstract:
Prenatal exposure to opiates can have devastating effects on the development of human fetuses and may induce long-term physical and neurobehavioral changes during postnatal maturation. The present study was aimed at identifying cross-generational effects of prenatal morphine exposure in Sprague-Dawley rats. Pregnant rats were injected subcutaneously with either saline or morphine (10 mg/kg) twice daily during gestational days 11-18. Litter size, percentage of males and females, anogenital distances (AGDs), righting reflex, and body weight were assessed in prenatally morphine-exposed pups (first generation) and their offspring (second generation). Both prenatally morphine-exposed pups and offspring of prenatally morphine-exposed dams exhibited an increased latency to right. Additionally, second generation pups were slower in righting than first generation pups. During the early postnatal period the second generation pups weighed less than the first generation regardless of drug exposure. The AGDs of second generation male pups were decreased relative to the first generation. Our data provide important novel information about the trans-generational effects of maternal opiate abuse that may be useful for understanding/evaluating the teratogenic effects of prenatal opiate exposure.
