Fertility, maternal care, and offspring behavior in mice prenatally treated with tobacco smoke.

Female mice from lines selectively bred for differences in open-field activity were exposed to tobacco smoke during gestation. Smoke-treated females were less likely than controls to have produced litters by 23 days after observation of a vaginal plug. Within the high-active line, fewer pups of smoke-treated dams survived to weaning. Regardless of treatment, fewer high-active than low-active offspring survived to weaning. Results of a 4-day series of open-field activity tests administered to offspring beginning at 28 days of age indicated that tobacco smoke administered prenatally and/or during testing depresses open-field activity in both lines. Other activity tests administered at 50 days of age gave similar results. Tissue nicotine levels after nicotine injection tended to be higher in high-active and control groups than in low-active and smoke-treated groups, respectively. Liver weight expressed as percentage of body weight was 11.9% greater in smoke-treated animals than in controls.