Premium
Effect of pathological conditions, pharmacotherapy and drugs of abuse upon folic acid placental uptake
Author(s) -
Keating Elisa,
Gonçalves Pedro,
Campos Isabel,
Costa Fernanda,
Azevedo Isabel,
Martel Fátima
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.21.5.a533-a
Subject(s) - pharmacology , pharmacotherapy , medicine , endocrinology , alcohol abuse , pregnancy , psychiatry , biology , genetics
Folic acid (FA) acts as a coenzyme in the de novo biosynthesis of purines and thymidylate, being particularly important during pregnancy for normal fetal growth and development. Pregnant women are exposed to several xenobiotics due to pharmacotherapy of mother's disease or to lifestyle factors such as smoking, drug abuse and alcohol consumption. Our aim was to study the effect of: high serotonin and high glucose levels (markers for preeclampsia and diabetes, respectively), anti‐hypertensive drugs (such as clonidine, atenolol, α‐methyldopa and labetalol), insulin (used for the therapy of gestational diabetes) and drugs of abuse (such as MDMA ( ecstasy ), amphetamine, tetrahydrocannabinol, nicotine, cocaine, ethanol (and its metabolite acetaldehyde)) on placental FA uptake. For this, we tested the acute and chronic effects of these compounds upon the uptake of 3 H‐FA by primary cultured human cytotrophoblasts. Our results show that 3 H‐FA uptake does not seem to be affected either by hyperserotoninemia or hyperglycemia or by the pharmacotherapy tested. However, different drugs of abuse seem to differentially modulate the placental transport of FA ( e.g . ethanol inhibitis 3 H‐FA placental uptake). In conclusion, modulation of FA placental uptake by drugs of abuse might contribute to their known fetotoxic effects. This work was supported by FCT and Programa Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação do Quadro Comunitário de Apoio (POCTI/SAU‐FCF/59382/2004).