Abstract
Werboff and Kesner1 have claimed that administration of meprobamate to gravid rats for four successive days during any period of pregnancy resulted in offspring that, compared with the controls, were lighter in body-weight and significantly poorer at learning a Lashley III maze. The latter deficiency was attributed to some unspecified effect of the drug on the developing brain. Since previous experience with meprobamate had not revealed any deleterious effects on body-weight or size among the progeny of meprobamate-treated females2, and since it seemed unlikely that a cerebral impairment due to prenatal drug exposure should be unrelated to the embryo's age at the time of insult3, we repeated the Werboff and Kesner experiment. This replication also provided the opportunity for verifying an earlier report by Werboff and Havlena4 that prenatal exposure to meprobamate altered performance on the inclined plane and in the open-field test.
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References
Werboff, J., and Kesner, R., Nature, 197, 106 (1963).
Berger, F. M., J. Pharmacol. Exp. Therap., 112, 413 (1954).
Berger, F. M., Brit. Med. J., i, 540 (1963).
Werboff, J., and Havlena, J., J. Exp. Neurol., 6, 263 (1962).
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KLETZKIN, M., WOJCIECHOWSKI, H. & MARGOLIN, S. Postnatal Behavioural Effects of Meprobamate injected into the Gravid Rat. Nature 204, 1206 (1964). https://doi.org/10.1038/2041206a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2041206a0
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