Neurotoxicology
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The focus of this study was to characterize the impact of gestational exposure to benzo(a)pyrene [B(a)P] on modulation of glutamate receptor subunit expression that is critical for the maintenance of synaptic plasticity mechanisms during hippocampal or cortical development in offspring. Previous studies have demonstrated that hippocampal and/or cortical synaptic plasticity (as measured by long-term potentiation and S1-cortex spontaneous/evoked neuronal activity) and learning behavior (as measured by fixed-ratio performance operant testing) is significantly impaired in polycyclic aromatic or halogenated aromatic hydrocarbon-exposed offspring as compared to controls. These previous studies have also revealed that brain to body weight ratios are greater in exposed offspring relative to controls indicative of intrauterine growth retardation which has been shown to manifest as low birth weight in offspring. ⋯ The results of these studies revealed significant: (1) disposition to the hippocampus and cortex, (2) down-regulation of developmental glutamate receptor mRNA and protein subunit expression and (3) voltage-dependent decreases in the amplitude of inward currents at negative potentials in B(a)P-treated cortical neuronal membranes. These results suggest that plasticity and behavioral deficits produced as a result of gestational B(a)P exposure are at least, in part, a result of down-regulation of early developmental glutamate receptor subunit expression and function at a time when excitatory synapses are being formed for the first time in the developing central nervous system. The results also predict that in B(a)P-exposed offspring with reduced early glutamate receptor subunit expression, a parallel deficit in behaviors that depend on normal hippocampal or cortical functioning will be observed and that these deficits will be present throughout life.