Life span and pathology in offspring following nicotine and methamphetamine exposure

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Abstract
Seventy-nine primiparous Sprague-Dawley rats received s.c. injections of either 3.0 mg/Kg of pure nicotine, 5.0 mg/Kg of methamphetamine HCL, 5.0 mg/Kg of saline vehicle, or received no injections during the 21 day gestational and 19 day nursing period. Male offspring were divided into 3 groups at weaning. The autopsy animals (n = 80) were sacrificed at selected periods during the life span, the aging animals (n = 60) were weighed monthly until death, and the behavioral rats (n = 48) were monitored on a variety of behavioral tasks throughout their life span. Measures reported here include life span data, organ pathology and tumor formation. Significant differences among the four offspring groups were found for tumor incidence, gross pathology, and age at death in the autopsy group; and weight maintenance in the aging group.