Prenatal opioid exposure inhibits microglial sculpting of the dopamine system selectively in adolescent male offspring.

ABSTRACT: The current opioid epidemic has dramatically increased the number of children who are prenatally exposed to opioids, including oxycodone. A number of social and cognitive abnormalities have been documented in these children as they reach young adulthood. However, little is known about the mechanisms underlying developmental effects of prenatal opioid exposure. Microglia, the resident immune cells of the brain, respond to acute opioid exposure in adulthood. Moreover, microglia are known to sculpt neural circuits during typical development. Indeed, we recently found that microglial phagocytosis of dopamine D1 receptors (D1R) in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) is required for the natural developmental decline in NAc-D1R that occurs between adolescence and adulthood in rats. This microglial prunin

SUBMITTER: Smith CJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9372181 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature