Prenatal exposure to alpha-pinine improves reflexive motor behaviours in mice offspring

alpha-pinene is a well-known compound representative of the monoterpenes group with a wide range of pharmacological activities. This article aims to determine effects of the prenatal exposure to alpha-pinene on reflexive motor behaviours in mice offspring. Forty pregnant female NMRI mice (8-10 weeks old) were allocated into four groups. Group 1 served as control and groups 2-4 were intraperitoneally (i.p.) injected alpha-pinene (0.1, 0.5 and 1 mg/kg) on 5, 8, 11, 14 and 17 days of gestation (GD). The control group was injected with saline at the same days. Following delivery, 20 pups from each litter were selected and reflexive motor behaviours determined using ambulation, hindlimb foot angle, surface righting, hindlimb strength, grip strength, frontlimb suspension and negative geotaxis tests. Based on the findings of the present study, maternal exposure to alpha-pinene increased ambulation score, hindlimb suspension score, grip strength, front-limb suspension compared with the control group (P < 0.05). Also, prenatal exposure to alpha-pinene decreased surface righting, hind-limb foot angle and negative geotaxis in mice offspring compared with the control group (P < 0.05). alpha-pinene (0.1, 0.5 and 1 mg/kg) decreased blood MDA and increased SOD and GPx levels in mice offspring (P < 0.05). These results suggested alpha-pinene exposure during pregnancy has positive effect on reflexive motor behaviours in mice offspring possibly due to its antioxidant properties.