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Neonatal neuronal apoptosis after betamethasone administration in pregnant Wistar rats
Marcelo Santucci França1, Antonio Fernandes Moron1, Edward Araujo Júnior1
1a Department of Obstetrics, Fetal Medicine Discipline and.
Objective:
To analyze the apoptosis of cortical and hippocampal neurons in newborn following the intramuscular administration of betamethasone in pregnant Wistar rats.
Methods:
Betamethasone or placebo was administered to 10 pregnant rats. Subsequently, 98 newborns were analyzed in three different groups: therapeutic dose (TD, 20 mg/kg), triple therapeutic dose (3TD, 60 mg/kg), and nine times TD (9TD, 180 mg/kg). Forty-four newborns were injected with placebo (control subjects--CTR). Neuronal apoptosis was measured by immunofluorescence using the TUNEL assay. The one-way analysis of variance, Tukey-Kramer (parametric) test and Kruskal-Wallis (non-parametric) test were used for statistical analysis.
Results:
The CA1 area of the hippocampus of TD and 3TD groups showed significant differences from that of the CTR group (p < 0.001). Compared to the CTR group, there was increased neuronal apoptosis in the dentate gyrus (DG) of animals in TD and 3TD groups (p < 0.0001). There were no significant differences in CA2 and CA3 regions as well as in amygdala and cortex.
Conclusion:
Prenatal administration of betamethasone leads to significant changes in neuronal apoptosis in CA1 and DG regions.
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