Department of Biology, School of Basic Medical Science, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui 230032, People's Republic of China.
Synapse. 2009 Dec;63(12):1154-61. doi: 10.1002/syn.20694.
Altered cortical neuronal morphology and juvenile behavior manifestation by prenatal morphine exposure were well documented. However, this developmental morphine exposure affect the lateral secondary visual area (V2L), which may be critically involved in the multisensory of auditory and visual stimulus, remained poorly understood. To clarify the neuronal architecture changes possibly occurring in the V2L, Golgi-Cox staining was used in this study to count dendritic length and the spine density of the layer II/III pyramidal neurons in the V2L of the juvenile rats (postnatal day 25, PND25) prenatally exposed to morphine (gestation days 11-18). Quantitative analysis showed that prenatal morphine exposure decreased the total length, branch number, and spine density of the layer II/III pyramidal neurons in the V2L, and selectively altered the total length of the basal dendrites but not of the apical dendrites. The findings may provide the mechanistic understanding of the behavioral changes in the children whose mothers abuse opiates during pregnancy.
产前吗啡暴露会改变皮质神经元形态和青少年行为表现，这一点已有充分的文献记载。然而，这种发育性吗啡暴露是否会影响外侧次级视觉区（V2L），而 V2L 可能对听觉和视觉刺激的多感官处理至关重要，目前仍知之甚少。为了阐明 V2L 中可能发生的神经元结构变化，本研究采用 Golgi-Cox 染色技术，对产前暴露于吗啡（妊娠第 11 至 18 天）的幼鼠（出生后第 25 天，PND25）V2L 中 II/III 层锥体神经元的树突长度和棘突密度进行计数。定量分析显示，产前吗啡暴露降低了 V2L 中 II/III 层锥体神经元的总长度、分支数量和棘突密度，选择性地改变了基底树突的总长度，而不改变顶树突的总长度。这些发现可能为了解母亲在怀孕期间滥用阿片类药物的儿童行为变化提供机制上的认识。
