TY - JOUR
T1 - Prenatal betamethasone exposure has sex specific effects in reversal learning and attention in juvenile baboons
AU - Rodriguez, Jesse S.
AU - Zrcher, Nicole R.
AU - Keenan, Kathryn E.
AU - Bartlett, Thad Q.
AU - Nathanielsz, Peter W.
AU - Nijland, Mark J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Supported by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development-021350 and a supplement to Dr Rodriguez.
PY - 2011/6
Y1 - 2011/6
N2 - Objective: We investigated effects of 3 weekly courses of fetal betamethasone (βM) on motivation and cognition in juvenile baboon offspring utilizing the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery. Study Design: Pregnant baboons (Papio species) received 2 injections of saline control or 175 μg/kg βM 24 hours apart at 0.6, 0.65, and 0.7 gestation. Offspring (saline control female, n = 7 and saline control male, n = 6; βM female [FβM], n = 7 and βM male [MβM], n = 5) were studied at 2.6-3.2 years with a progressive ratio test for motivation, simple discriminations and reversals for associative learning and rule change plasticity, and an intra/extradimensional set-shifting test for attention allocation. Results: βM exposure decreased motivation in both sexes. In intra/extradimensional testing, FβM made more errors in the simple discrimination reversal (mean difference of errors [FβM MβM] = 20.2 ± 9.9; P ≤ .05), compound discrimination (mean difference of errors = 36.3 ± 17.4; P ≤ .05), and compound reversal (mean difference of errors = 58 ± 23.6; P < .05) stages as compared to the MβM offspring. Conclusion: This central nervous system developmental programming adds growing concerns of long-term effects of repeated fetal synthetic glucocorticoid exposure. In summary, behavioral effects observed show sex-specific differences in resilience to multiple fetal βM exposures.
AB - Objective: We investigated effects of 3 weekly courses of fetal betamethasone (βM) on motivation and cognition in juvenile baboon offspring utilizing the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery. Study Design: Pregnant baboons (Papio species) received 2 injections of saline control or 175 μg/kg βM 24 hours apart at 0.6, 0.65, and 0.7 gestation. Offspring (saline control female, n = 7 and saline control male, n = 6; βM female [FβM], n = 7 and βM male [MβM], n = 5) were studied at 2.6-3.2 years with a progressive ratio test for motivation, simple discriminations and reversals for associative learning and rule change plasticity, and an intra/extradimensional set-shifting test for attention allocation. Results: βM exposure decreased motivation in both sexes. In intra/extradimensional testing, FβM made more errors in the simple discrimination reversal (mean difference of errors [FβM MβM] = 20.2 ± 9.9; P ≤ .05), compound discrimination (mean difference of errors = 36.3 ± 17.4; P ≤ .05), and compound reversal (mean difference of errors = 58 ± 23.6; P < .05) stages as compared to the MβM offspring. Conclusion: This central nervous system developmental programming adds growing concerns of long-term effects of repeated fetal synthetic glucocorticoid exposure. In summary, behavioral effects observed show sex-specific differences in resilience to multiple fetal βM exposures.
KW - developmental programming
KW - neurodevelopment
KW - neuropsychological testing
KW - nonhuman primates
KW - operant conditioning
KW - synthetic glucocorticoids
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ajog.2011.01.063
DO - 10.1016/j.ajog.2011.01.063
M3 - Article
C2 - 21411054
AN - SCOPUS:79958100234
SN - 0002-9378
VL - 204
SP - 545.e1-545.e10
JO - American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
JF - American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
IS - 6
ER -