Behavioural multigenerational effect induced by the administration of very low doses of zinc during pregnancy, lactation and prepuberal period in the rat

Abstract

In previous studies from this laboratory, the chronic administration of ZnTe during pregnancy, lactation and prepuberal stages of litters (F1 generation), the behavioural patterns of motivated exploration, lateralized exploration, social activity and survival responses of the maturing rats were modified. In order to find out if these affected behaviours should extend to the next generation, F1 litter rats, exposed previously to tellurium (Te) up to 30 days of age were left at rest with no further treatment up to reach 70 day-old. Then, F1 female rats were mated with normal untreated male rats, and in the next generation (F2), the litter rats at 30 day-old preserved the modified behaviours previously observed in their parents. This evidence suggested that Te effects were intergenerational. In the present work, considering that in the first study ZnTe was used, and it is well known that Zn ion has many physiological functions in the cell, experiments were done in order to define if Zn could have a similar intergenerational effect than Te. Working with the same experimental setup than in previous experiments, but using ZnCl2 instead of ZnTe, results shown that none of the behavioural responses studied were affected in F1 generation. However, in F2 generation lateralized exploration and survival behaviour were inhibited, suggesting that Zn also has an intergenerational effect.