Short-term and long-term effects of prenatal exposure to peat smoke

Introduction. Air pollution by combustion products formed during wildfires poses a real risk for disorders of reproductive health in the population living under conditions of high smoke pollution from wildfires.Materials and methods. Female white mongrel rats were exposed to peat smoke from the 14th to the 18th day of gestation. The offspring were examined on the 4th, 7th, 14th, 21st, 40th, and 90th days of postnatal development. Postnatal mortality, physical development, the rate of maturation of sensorimotor reflexes, muscle strength, motor activity, and electroencephalogram parameters in the offspring were assessed.Results. Prenatal exposure to peat smoke leads to a significant decrease in survival and impaired physical development of the offspring of white rats. Newborn rats showed low body weight, a pronounced delay in the formation of the vestibular response, muscle strength and motor coordination. During puberty and in adult animals, changes in behavior and EEG were recorded only in males from the obtained offspring.Limitations. This study is limited to the study of the offspring in white rats exposed to peat smoke from the 14th to the 18th days of gestation.Conclusion. The consequences of exposure to peat smoke in the prenatal period were characterized by an increase in mortality over the neonatal period, impaired physical and sensorimotor development, and changes in the functional state of the central nervous system in the offspring.Compliance with ethical standards. The study was approved by the local Ethics Committee of the East Siberian Institute of Medical and Environmental Research (Protocol No. 32 of 01/10/2023), conducted in accordance with the European Convention for the Protection of Vertebrates Used for Experiments or Other Scientific Purposes (ETS N 123), directive of the European Parliament and the Council Of the European Union 2010/63/EC of 09/22/2010 on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes.Contribution: Vokina V.A. – development of the study concept and design, conducting the experiment, processing, analyzing and interpreting data, reviewing publications on the topic of the article; writing and design of the article; Sosedova L.M. – development of the study concept and design, reviewing publications on the topic of the article; writing and design of the article; Pankova A.A. – conducting the experiment, collecting and initially processing the material, statistical processing of data; Abramova V.A. – collecting and initially processing the material, statistical processing of data; Rukavishnikov V.S. – research methodology, approval of the manuscript for publication, checking critical content; Savchenkov M.F. – critical revision of the manuscript, final approval of the article. All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript and approval of the manuscript final version.Funding. The work was carried out according to the research plan within the framework of the state task.Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.Received: March 19, 2025 / Accepted: June 26, 2025 / Published: July 31, 2025

peat smoke, rats, offspring, prenatal period, development, central nervous system, behavior