Acute gestational cocaine exposure alone or in combination with low-dose ethanol does not influence prenatal mortality or fetal weight in mice

Abstract

The teratogenic effects of cocaine and ethanol were investigated using an acute treatment model of C57BL/6J mice treated on gestation day 15 (GD15) with evaluation on GD17. Females were intubated once with a subteratogenic dose of ethanol (0 or 4 g/kg) and injected subcutaneously twice, 1 h apart, with equal doses of cocaine HCl (0 or 60 mg/kg), for a final daily dose of 120 mg/kg. The first cocaine injection followed ethanol by 10 min. Blood ethanol levels (BEL) and plasma cocaine levels were determined, and pair-feeding was employed. The results revealed no group differences on pregnancy outcome. That is, maternal weight gain, total number of implants, prenatal mortality, and fetal body weight were not statistically different. No significant differences in BEL or plasma cocaine levels were found among the various treatment groups. These results suggest that, under these conditions, relatively high levels of cocaine (120 mg/kg, SC), given alone or in combination with subteratogenic doses of ethanol late in pregnancy, are not teratogenic in mice.