The effect of vitamin c on the cerebral cortex neurons of rats exposed by prenatal noise stress

– The development of cerebral cortex neurons is important due to the complexity of synaptogenesis. Various stressors including prenatal noise exposure may have adverse effect on this process. Vitamin C has been reported to act as an antioxidant in the brain that could function as a reactive oxygen species scavenger and a neuromodulator. Here we investigate the protective effect of vitamin C on the cerebral cortex neurons of the rat offspring exposed by prenatal noise. Twenty-four rat offspring age 0 from 32 pregnant Wista rmothers were divided into 4 groups equally: K1 (distilled water), K2 (vitamin C), P1 (distilled water + noise), P2 (vitamin C + noise). Vitamin C was administered orally 150 mg/kg of body weight, once daily from day 1 of pregnancy until delivery. Prenatal noise exposure was a white noise given 4 hours daily at 95 dB (from day 15 to delivery). The number of neurons from both hemisphere was counted in duplicate from slides stained with hematoxylin-eosin; 4 ì in thickness, parasagittal sliced, 400x of magnification under a light microscope. Data from 4 groups were then analysed using ANOVA and LSD post-test with significance level of p<0.05. The neuron number of P1 is significantly lower compared to the control groups (p=0.006). When compared to P1, the number of the neurons in P2 is significantly higher (p=0.006). From the current study, vitamin C may protect the cerebral cortex from the adverse effect of prenatal noise during pregnancy in rats.