Prenatal phenobarbital treatment and temperature-controlling dopamine receptors

Pregnant mice were fed a phenobarbital-containing diet on days nine through 18 of pregnancy. Following parturition, the offspring of such animals were allowed to reach adulthood and then were tested for their response to an acute injection of apomorphine. Male offspring were less sensitive, while female offspring were more sensitive than matched controls to apomorphine-induced hypothermia. The witnessed differences in apomorphine-induced hypothermia could not be attributed to differences in brain apomorphine levels, alterations in the thermoregulation following non-drug challenges to the mouse's thermoregulatory ability, or changes in alpha-adrenergic receptor function. Our results suggest that prenatal phenobarbital administration produces changes in the function of dopamine receptors which regulate body temperature, and that the prenatally-induced changes last well into adulthood.