Maternal nicotine exposure during pregnancy and lactation: I. Effect on glycolysis in the lungs of the offspring.

We investigated the effect of maternal nicotine exposure during pregnancy and lactation on carbohydrate metabolism in the neonatal lung. Female rats received nicotine (1 mg/kg body weight/day) subcutaneously from day 7 after mating. Control animals received saline. The suckling rats were killed 24 hours after the last dose of nicotine was administered to the mother on postnatal day 14. The lung tissue of 9 rat pups from 3 litters was surgically removed and the in vitro utilization of exogenous glucose (micromol/g wet lung tissue/h) was determined. Lactate production (micromol/g wet lung tissue/h) was also determined to assess glycolytic activity. Maternal nicotine exposure during pregnancy and lactation stimulated glucose turnover by 21.6% (P<.01), but suppressed glycolysis by 24.6% (P<.001) and glycogenolysis by 37.9% (P<.001). Maternal nicotine exposure during gestation and lactation had no effect on the activity of hexokinase (U/g wet lung tissue), but resulted in a lower phosphofructokinase activity (U/g wet lung tissue) in the lungs of the offspring. From the data, it appeared that the inhibition of the flux of glucose through the glycolytic pathway can be attributed to an inhibition of phosphofructokinase.