Postnatal Evaluation of Behavior and Cardiovascular Function in Rats Following Daily Oral Caffeine Dosing of Dams Throughout Gestation

摘要

The study was designed to evaluate the teratogenic effects of caffeine given orally by gavage, and to further evaluate postnatal development and function after oral caffeine exposure. Experiment I consisted of sixty rats given daily gavage doses on days 1-19 of gestation of 0, 40 or 80 mg/kg caffeine in distilled water. Dams were sacrificed on day 20 of gestation, the fetuses removed and examined for external, visceral or skeletal malformations. Doses of 40 and 80 mg/kg caffeine significantly reduced maternal weight gain during pregnancy, but did not increase the prenatal death or malformation rate. Fetal weight was significantly reduced by the 80 mg/kg dose. Experiment II consisted of forty-eight rats given caffeine on days 1-20 of gestation by gavage at doses of 0, 10, 20, or 40 mg/kg. Dams were allowed to deliver, litters were culled to 8 pups(4 + or - 1 of each sex), and the pups were subsequently evaluated for postnatal growth and several functional parameters: swimming, developmental activity, blood pressure and electrocardiographic recordings. There were no consistent effects of dose on any of the physical or functional parameters evaluated, although caffeine reduced maternal weight gain at all doses evaluated. Thus, caffeine administration during gestation at doses up to 40 mg/kg appeared to have no adverse effects on offspring physical development, behavior or cardiovascular function.