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FIP Virtual Postdoc Seminar: Prenatal Heroin Exposure Alters Diffusion Weighted Brain Connectivity in Adolescent Offspring

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Wednesday, August 18, 2021
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
Dr. Kathryn Hornburg, BME Postdoc, Duke University

The United States is experiencing an opioid addiction epidemic, which has resulted in an increase in in utero exposure. While the long-term consequences of in utero opioid exposure on offspring have yet to be fully explored, data suggests profound impacts, normally identified at school age. Understanding the basis for deficits is critical to identifying individuals and developing interventions. Here, we examine how in utero exposure of mice to heroin affects brain development into early adolescence (P28). Pregnant C57BL/6J dams were exposed to escalating doses of heroin from gestational days 4-18. Magnetic resonance histology was performed on postmortem offspring brains. We identified differences in regional volume and/or fractional anisotropy, identifying those associated with reward, learning, and memory. We demonstrate that structure-based connectomic analysis using dimensional reduction can be used to detect drug-associated changes in brain connectivity, highlighting changes in the cingulate and motor cortices. In-line with clinical evidence, our findings suggest that in utero opioid exposure may have detrimental effects on brain morphology, connectivity and, consequently, function that persist into adolescence and beyond.

Contact: August Burns