Prenatal phencyclidine in rats: effects on apomorphine-induced climbing

Either 5 or 10 mg/kg of phencyclidine (PCP) in saline was administered by subcutaneous injection to gravid dams during the last two weeks of gestation. A pair-fed control group was administered the vehicle alone and allowed to eat and drink only the amount consumed by the 10 mg/kg group on the same gestation days. A nontreated control group was left undisturbed during pregnancy. All treated and control litters were fostered at birth to untreated dams. Among the dams receiving 10 mg/kg of PCP, food and water intake was initially reduced to 33-43% of nontreated controls, but then returned to control levels. Surprisingly, after 3 days of drug administration, water intake of PCP-treated dams exceeded that of the nontreated dams by approximately 15%. Compared with the nontreated dams, both PCP groups and pair-fed control dams gained significantly less body weight from conception to term. PCP had no significant effect on number of implantation sites or number of live births, however, PCP produced an apparent selective embryolethal effect on males and body weight reduction in all groups at birth. Prenatal PCP did not alter the sensitivity to apomorphine-induced climbing behavior during the second postnatal week. These results are discussed with respect to published animal and clinical studies of PCP exposure during pregnancy.