We previously found that maternal cigarette smoke (CS) exposure resulted in impairment of central chemoreception and oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction of parafacial respiratory group (pFRG, a critical site for mammalian central chemoreception) in neonatal rats. The present work was carried out to identify if maternal CS exposure could disturb the glutamate (GLU)-ergic and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-ergic balance in pFRG of neonatal rats. We found that maternal CS exposure induced a decrease in GLU content and consequently in GLU/GABA ratio in pFRG of neonatal rats. Maternal CS exposure also decreased glutamine content and glutaminase and glutamine synthetase activity in offspring pFRG. In addition, expression of vesicular glutamate transporter 2 was depressed, and those of glutamate transporter 1 and GABA transporter 3 were elevated by maternal CS exposure. These results indicate that maternal CS exposure leads to a disturbance of GLU/GABA balance in pFRG of the neonatal rats, which might contribute to the suppression of central chemoreception in maternal CS-exposed offspring.

中文翻译：

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孕妇吸烟暴露会破坏新生大鼠pFRG中的谷氨酸/ GABA平衡。

我们先前发现母体香烟烟雾（CS）暴露会导致新生大鼠的中枢化学感受力受损以及面呼吸系统（pFRG，哺乳动物中枢化学感受力的关键部位）的氧化应激和线粒体功能障碍。目前的工作是为了确定母体CS暴露是否会干扰新生大鼠pFRG中的谷氨酸（GLU）能量和γ-氨基丁酸（GABA）能量平衡。我们发现，母体CS暴露可导致新生大鼠pFRG中GLU含量降低，进而导致GLU / GABA比降低。母体CS暴露也降低了后代pFRG中的谷氨酰胺含量，谷氨酰胺酶和谷氨酰胺合成酶活性。另外，水泡谷氨酸转运蛋白2的表达降低，母体CS暴露使谷氨酸转运蛋白1和GABA转运蛋白3的含量升高。这些结果表明母体CS暴露会导致新生大鼠pFRG中GLU / GABA平衡的紊乱，这可能有助于抑制母体CS暴露后代的中央化学感受。