This review, which summarizes our findings concerning the long-term effects of pre-, peri- and postnatal factors affecting development, nociception and sensorimotor functions, focuses on three areas: 1) perinatal factors influencing nociception in adult rats were examined in rats with hippocampal lesions, after the administration of stress influencing and psychostimulant drugs (dexamethasone, indomethacine and methamphetamine); 2) the effect of pre- and early postnatal methamphetamine administration was shown to impair the development of sensorimotor functions tested in rat pups throughout the preweaning period; 3) the effect of extensive dorsal rhizotomy of the brachial plexus during the early postnatal period was studied with respect to neuropathic pain development and sensorimotor functions. The present study indicates that prenatal or neonatal stress, as well as various drugs, may disturb the development of the nociceptive system and cause long-term behavioral changes persisting to adulthood and that some types of neuropathic pain cannot be induced during the first two postnatal weeks at all. A mature nervous system is required for the development of the described pathological behaviors., R. Rokyta, A. Yamamotová, R. Šlamberová, M. Franěk, Š. Vaculín, L. Hrubá, B. Schutová, M. Pometlová., and Obsahuje bibliografii a bibliografické odkazy
Since close relationship was shown between drug addiction and memory formation, the aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of interaction between prenatal methamphetamine (MA) exposure and MA treatment in adulthood on spatial and non-spatial memory and on the structure of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors in the hippocampus. Adult male rats prenatally exposed to MA (5 mg/kg) or saline were tested in adulthood. Non-spatial memory was examined in the Object Recognition Test (ORT) and spatial memory in the Object Location Test (OLT) and in the Memory Retention Test (MRT) conducted in the Morris Water Maze (MWM), respectively. Based on the type of the memory test animals were injected either acutely (ORT, OLT) or long-term (MWM) with MA (1 mg/kg). After each testing, animals were sacrificed and brains were removed. The hippocampus was then examined in Western Blot analysis for occurrence of different NMDA receptors’ subtypes. Our results demonstrated that prenatal MA exposure affects the development of the NMDA receptors in the hippocampus that might correspond with improvement of spatial memory tested in adulthood in the MWM. On the other hand, the effect of prenatal MA exposure on nonspatial memory examined in the ORT was the opposite. In addition, we showed that the effect of MA administration in adulthood on NMDA receptors is influenced by prenatal MA exposure, which seems to correlate with the spatial memory examined in the OLT., R. Šlamberová, M. Vrajová, B. Schutová, M. Mertlová, E. Macúchová, K. Nohejlová, L. Hrubá, J. Puskarčíková, V. bubeníková-Valešová, A. Yamamotová., and Obsahuje bibliografii