Neurobehavioral development of CD-1 mice after combined gestational and postnatal exposure to ozone

Economical test methods for developmental neurobehavioral toxicity.

“…On the other hand, the selective response changes in different activity tests were suitable to generate specific working hypotheses concerning possible mechanisms of the treatment's action. Specifically, the attenuation of sex differences bears a strong similarity to that observed after developmental exposure to a wide variety of stressors, which suggests that 0 may produce long-lasting neural and endocrine changes like those documented by studies on early stress effects (77,110); this in turn could account for selective medium-and long-term behavioral changes in the absence of direct neuroteratogenic effects.…”

“…The effects of combined gestational and postnatal exposure on response profiles in two different observational tests and an automated test were more pronounced but equally selective (77). An open-field test (40x40 cm arena) at 24 days in 03-exposed mice showed an attenuation or elimination of sex differences, i.e., a reduction of the higher female scores to male levels in the case of rearing and a convergence of both female (lower) and male (higher) scores toward the overall average in the case of sniffing.…”

“…The size of the arena must be adjusted to both animal species and age. In the case of mice, for example, we now use a square (40 x 40 cm) arena for 10-to 30-day-old subjects (77). In the case of rats, a typical size is 60 x 60 cm, which has proved suitable for testing animals of different ages (78).…”

“…Subsequent studies in mice used more prolonged 03 exposure, up to 0.6 ppm, from several days before the start of pregnancy until either day 17 of pregnancy (110) or weaning of the offspring 3 weeks after birth (77), with or without cross-fostering at birth, respectively. Both exposure schedules again failed to affect postnatal neurobehavioral development, in spite of a marked and long-lasting depression of postnatal body weight gain in the study with combined gestational and postnatal treatment.…”

Air Pollution and Adverse Pregnancy Outcome

“…But considering many published data, the evidence for the association between NO 2 and LBW is inconclusive. Exposure to ozone may have negative effects on birth weight (BW) and neurodevelopment (Dell'Omo et al, 1995), although the mechanism through which ozone can affect pregnancy outcomes is unclear. Several hypotheses have been postulated to explain the mechanism of triggering PTB.…”