Cholinergic receptors in heart and brainstem of rats exposed to nicotine during development: implications for hypoxia tolerance and perinatal mortality.

Cigarette smoking during pregnancy increases the incidence of perinatal mortality and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). We have evaluated prenatal or postnatal nicotine exposure in developing rats to examine the potential role of altered neurotransmitter receptor expression in these processes. Pregnant rats received continuous infusions of nicotine throughout gestation, at doses mimicking the plasma levels found in smokers. After birth, cardiac M2-muscarinic cholinergic receptors, which are responsible for inhibitory autonomic actions, were enhanced in the nicotine group, coincidentally with decreases in stimulatory beta-adrenergic receptors that have been demonstrated previously. Studies of adenylyl cyclase activity confirmed that the changes in receptor binding represented functional alterations: the stimulatory response to isoproterenol was obtunded by prenatal nicotine exposure, whereas the inhibitory response to carbachol was enhanced. Elevations of M2-muscarinic receptor binding were not generalized to all tissues, as the same prenatal nicotine treatment elicited a reduction in these receptors in the brainstem, an effect that has also been noted in infants who died of SIDS; we found no effects of prenatal nicotine on brainstem M1-receptor binding. Postnatal administration of nicotine produced similar brainstem receptor effects when treatment was conducted during the first postnatal week but not thereafter; postnatal nicotine treatment did not affect cardiac M2-receptor binding. Thus, during a critical developmental period, nicotine exposure produces cardiac and brainstem receptor imbalances that favor inhibitory responses, effects that can contribute to morbidity and mortality evoked by hypoxic episodes, such as those experienced during parturition, sleep apnea or airway obstruction.