The rabbit as a model for studies of cocaine exposure in utero

The rabbit has been used to model the potential effects of in utero exposure to cocaine on fetal and postnatal development. Special advantages of this animal model include the fact that cocaine can be easily administered intravenously, thus mimicking crack cocaine use by pregnant women. Results indicate that at the dosage used (8 mg/kg of body weight, given intravenously daily) gross teratologic defects do not develop. Cocaine-exposed pregnant does not differ from controls in weight gain or in the number of live kits delivered. Cocaine-exposed kits do not differ from controls in survival or in postnatal weight gain. The importance of this rabbit model is that offspring that have been exposed to these doses of cocaine in utero have a variety of abnormalities in structure and function of the central nervous system in the absence of any major teratologic defects.