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Neuron transplantation reverses phenobarbital-induced behavioral birth defects in mice
1Melvin A. and Eleanor Ross Laboratory for Studies in Neural Birth Defects, Department of Anatomy and Embryology, Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel.
Abstract:
Mice were exposed to phenobarbital prenatally on gestation days 9-18 (B mice), and were tested at adulthood for behavioral changes. B mice showed deficits in the eight-arm maze, a behavior related to the septohippocampal pathways. Consequently, transplantation of septal (mostly cholinergic) and locus coeruleus (mostly noradrenergic) neurons was applied to reverse the behavioral deficits. Most (75%) of the controls but none of the B mice reached a specific criterion in the eight-arm maze. However, transplantation of fetal septal tissue into the hippocampus of B mice enabled 55% of them to reach criterion. Transplantation of locus coeruleus tissue did not improve the performance of B mice. The viability of the transplants was confirmed in cytochemical studies. The results suggest that transplantation of neurons can be applied to reverse phenobarbital-induced behavioral birth defects.