Changes in forebrain, cerebellum and brain stem phospholipid patterns from mothers and newborn rats after chronic pentazocine treatment during the gestation period.

Pregnant female Wistar rats were injected with pentazocine intramuscularly during the first nineteen days of the gestation period. The initial dose (1.8 mg/kg body weight) was increased daily by 1.2 mg of pentazocine, finishing with 23.4 mg/kg body weight. Chemical analysis of the forebrain, cerebellum and brain stem from mothers and their newborns points to statistically non-significant changes in total protein, phospholipid and cholesterol contents after pentazocine treatment. The phospholipid pattern only changed significantly in the brain stem of the mother rats treated with pentazocine, showing an increase (p less than 0.05) in inositol phosphoglycerides (2.5-fold) and phosphatidylglycerol (3.5-fold) percentages, while ethanolamine- and serine-phosphoglycerides decreased (p less than 0.05) by about 0.9 and 0.6-fold, respectively. The cholesterol profile found in the forebrains of the mother rats and their newborns did not show statistically significant differences after treatment.