Neurologische Störungen

Lactational Exposure to Fipronil Pesticide in Low Dose Impairs Memory in Rat Offspring

Abstract

Francisco Pizzolato Montanha, Faber Daniel Machado, Caique Aparecido Faria, Fábio Anselmo, Rômulo Francis Estangari Lot, Raquel Beneton Ferioli, Noeme Sousa Rocha1 and Antonio Francisco Godinho

Perinatal exposure to pesticides has been associated with neurotoxic changes that may occur during offspring development. This work aimed to evaluate the memory behavior in young and adult offspring from Wistar rats exposed to fipronil in the lactational period. For this, pregnant rats were distributed into two groups (N = 15) constituted as follows: control (Ct) and exposed to fipronil (Fip). Fipronil (Topline®) was administrated to mothers topically, at dose of 1 mg/kg/day, from the 7-14th day of lactation. The offspring memory behavior was assessed using the new object recognition task (ORT) and eight-radial arm maze task (8-RAM). Additionally was quantified the activity of the acetylcholinesterase enzyme (AChE) and made histopathological analysis of brain tissue. Results show persistent decreased memory behavior in offspring exposed to fipronil during lactation period associated with altered AChE activity and morphological changes in the animal's brain tissue. It is concluded that lactational exposure to fipronil provoked damage to the central nervous system (CNS) including altered memory behavior with histopathological and biochemical changes.