Developmental psychobiology
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Tobacco smoke exposure affects the activity of both the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the sympathetic nervous system (SNS). Statistics reveal 41 million children in the U. S. are regularly exposed to tobacco smoke, but we know little about the effects of environmental tobacco smoke exposure on HPA and SNS activity in early childhood. ⋯ Mothers who smoked had higher salivary cortisol levels and lower sAA activity compared to nonsmoking mothers. There were no associations between maternal smoking behavior, infant's salivary cotinine levels, or tobacco exposure group, and cortisol or sAA measured in infant's saliva. The findings are discussed in relation to the influence of smoking tobacco on the validity of salivary biomarkers of stress.
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Comparative Study
Maternal anesthesia via isoflurane or ether differentially affects pre-and postnatal behavior in rat offspring.
Our understanding of prenatal behavior has been significantly advanced by techniques for direct observation and manipulation of unanesthetized, behaving rodent fetuses with intact umbilical connections to the mother. These techniques involve brief administration of an inhalant anesthesic, enabling spinal transection of the rat or mouse dam, after which procedures can continue with unanesthetized dams and fetuses. Because anesthetics administered to the mother can cross the placental barrier, it is possible that fetuses are anesthetized to varying degrees. ⋯ Fewer spontaneous fetal movements and first postpartum nipple attachments were observed following maternal exposure to ether as compared to isoflurane. Neonatal breathing frequencies and oxygenation did not account for group differences in nipple attachment. Our results provide evidence that the particular inhalant anesthetic employed in prenatal manipulation studies determines frequencies of perinatal behavior.