ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the behavior of rats receiving subteratogenic or marginally teratogenic doses of drugs known to cause prenatal malformation of the central nervous system. It presents a brief report of behavioral testing of rats exposed in utero to hydroxyurea and acetazolamide. The center curve reflects the increase in the number of gross malformations usually associated with the administration of increasingly large doses of a teratogen during the sensitive period of CNS malformation. The left hand curve reflects the belief that in addition to embryolethal and teratogenic effects, a given dose of a CNS teratogen will produce functional effects, learning impairments, abnormal activity patterns. At small doses functional effects are found in the absence of gross malformation— some investigators have found behavioral effects at small fractions of the dose at which frank malformations are first seen. A second series of experiments has examined the postnatal behavioral effects of prenatal Diamox administration.
