Sodium flouride exposure during pregnancy may interfere with normal development and increase the risk of neurological and psychiatric disorders in adulthood. - GreenMedInfo Summary
Effects of developmental fluoride exposure on rat ultrasonic vocalization, acoustic startle reflex and pre-pulse inhibition.
Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2010 Jun;14(6):507-12. PMID: 20712257
Department of Human Anatomy and Histology "R. Amprino", Medical School, University of Bari, Bari, Italy.
Rats receiving fluoride during the whole pregnancy up to the 9th day of lactation showed, when isolated at 10th day of life, a reduced rate of ultrasonic vocalizations (UV) in male pups (NaF 5.0 mg) and, in 90th days male rats, an increase of the Pre-Pulse Inhibition (PPI) with a reduction of the Peak response to the Startle stimulus given alone. Newborn rat reactivity could represent a useful and validated model in anxiety studies which could be moored with the Acoustic Startle Reflex (ASR) and PPI, appropriate models to study, in adulthood, particular neurological and psychiatric disorders showing deficits in attention and sensory-motor gating (Tourettes' syndrome, obsessive compulsive disorders, Huntington's disease and schizophrenia).