Prenatal exposure to methamphetamine and its effect on the gene expression in the selected parts of the brains of experimental rats

Introduction: Methamphetamine is a drug frequently abused by drug-addicted pregnant women and also one of the mostcommonly used drugs in the CzechRepublic. This drug passes easily through a placental barrier into the fetus. Thus it can negatively affect not only the mother but also the prenatal development of her offspring. Objectives: In the framework of the grant project GA CR: 14-03708S, the long-term effects of prenatal exposure to methamphetamine were detected. It was determined whether the prenatal methamphetamine exposure affects the generation of offspring of exposed females at the level of gene expression of genes in specific regions of the brain, striatum, hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. Methods: In the selected parts of the brain, which were removed from the rat, the microarray hybridization and the real-time PCR to express changes in expression of selected genes were performed. Results: Statistical analysis of microarray hybridization did not show the significantly altered gene expression in tested genes significantly. Only boundary values for 13 genes were measured, which were further tested by real-time PCR.After a statistic evaluation of real-time PCR, the significantly altered expression was found in 2 genes. The significantly changed expression of DRD3 and TACR3 genes was found..