Neonatal exposure to a high level of ACTH4–10 impairs adult learning performance

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Abstract

Male offspring of Sprague-Dawley dams were injected with 25 μg of ACTH4–10 or the vehicle on days 2 through 7 postpartum. Peptide treated animals exhibited a marked motor response to the peptide injection. Adrenal weights of these animals were consistently heavier than littermate controls in both the developing and adult animals. ACTH4–10 treated neonates exhibited significantly poorer learning performance in the shuttle box and were slower to acquire the reversal learning problem of a visual discrimination task under light shock levels. In addition, these animals also exhibited an exaggerated startle response and a stronger thigmotaxis response in the open field than controls. These results indicate that exposing the developing nervous system to relatively high levels of ACTH4–10 can produce marked long-term effects on behavior.

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Cited by (16)

  • Influence of the N-terminus acetylation of Semax, a synthetic analog of ACTH(4-10), on copper(II) and zinc(II) coordination and biological properties

    2016, Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry
    Citation Excerpt :

    This action is not associated with the ACTH hormonal activity and likely is the result of a direct action on the CNS [10]. Several studies showed that both behavioural and neurotrophic activity of ACTH are ascribable to the N-terminal part of the ACTH molecule [4], with the fragment ACTH(4-10), which mimic some features of the full-length ACTH molecule, showing the most strong effects on behaviour [11–14]. Several analogues of the ACTH natural peptides, showing more effectiveness than the natural N-terminal ACTH fragments, have been synthesized [15–17].

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