Embryonic spontaneous motility after acute and chronic administration of kainate

Changes in spontaneous motility after the acute and chronic administration of kainate were studied in 11- to 19-day-old chick embryos. 1. After acute administration, kainate (20 mg/kg e.w.) already depressed motility in 11-day-old embryos. From the 17th day it induced explosive activation of embryonic motility, but never in chronic spinal preparations. 2. The chronic administration of kainate (2.56 +/- 0.62 mg/kg e.w./24 h) reduced embryonic motor activity. The effect already developed after administering kainate from the 4th to the 8th day of incubation. Prolonged administration made no important difference to the results. Chronic administration was followed by histopathological changes in the nervous tissue. These were mainly of an oedematous type and affected the glia and the brain capillaries, whereas pyknotic changes were found in the large neurones. 3. The results showed that the CNS is already sensitive to the neurotoxic effect of kainate from the early stages of embryogenesis and that the picture of the reaction of the embryonic CNS is closely correlated to the degree of maturation.