We examined the effect of six doses of dexamethasone (Dex) administered daily (2-7 days of age) to postnatal rats on body weight gain, food and water intake, peripheral hormonal/metabolic milieu, and hypothalamic neuropeptides that regulate food intake. We observed a Dex-induced acute (3 days of age) suppression of endogenous corticosterone and an increase in circulating leptin concentrations t...

Objective: Indomethacin is a non-selective cyclooxygenase (COX) inhibitor that is commonly administered to extremely low gestational age neonates for symptomatic patent ductus arteriosus. It suppresses prostaglandins which modulate growth and secretion of various hormones. We examined the hypothesis that early postnatal administration of Indomethacin may influence growth and development of test...

Slight changes in the abundance of certain lipid species in the brain may drastically alter normal neurodevelopment via membrane stability, cell signalling, and cell survival. Previous findings have demonstrated that postnatal exposure to di (2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) disrupts normal axonal and neural development in the hippocampus. The goal of the current study was to determine whether po...

This study aimed to investigate whether nociceptin contributes to the alterations in cerebral blood flow (CBF) regulation following postnatal exposure to ethanol in Sprague-Dawley rats. Animals received ethanol twice a day, 2 hr apart, on postnatal 6, 7 and 8 days. The changes in regional CBF (rCBF) in response to the changes in mean arterial blood pressure were determined at 4-, 8-, and 12-wee...

Nicotine exposure modifies the expression of catecholamine and opioid neurotransmitter systems involved in attenuation of hypoxic chemosensitivity. We used in situ hybridization histochemistry to determine the effect of prenatal and early postnatal nicotine exposure on tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), dopamine beta-hydroxylase (DbetaH), preproenkephalin (PPE), and D2-dopamine receptor mRNA levels in ...

The present review deals with effects of vitamin C on lead intoxicated developing thymus in mice .In the world of environmental health and medicine, lead exposure remains one of the most important problems in terms of prevalence of exposure and public health impact. Previous research has shown that every level of lead exposure is dangerous to animals and humans. Thus lead toxicity continues to ...

Cocaine use is common among pregnant women with a history of substance abuse, and has been shown to cause abnormalities in the heart during fetal and postnatal development. However, mechanisms underlying the detrimental effects of cocaine on the developing heart are not fully understood. In this issue, Bae and Zhang show that prenatal cocaine exposure increases the susceptibility of the postnat...

The masculinizing effects of prenatal androgens on human neurobehavioral development are well established. Also, the early postnatal surge of androgens in male infants, or mini-puberty, has been well documented and is known to influence physiological development, including penile growth. However, neurobehavioral effects of androgen exposure during mini-puberty are largely unknown. The main aim ...