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Role of Alcohol‐induced Hypothermia in Mediating the Teratogenic Effects of Alcohol in C57BL/6 J Mice
Author(s) -
Randall Carrie L.,
Anton Raymond F.,
Becker Howard C.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
alcoholism: clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1530-0277
pISSN - 0145-6008
DOI - 10.1111/j.1530-0277.1988.tb00218.x
Subject(s) - alcohol , hypothermia , medicine , pharmacology , psychology , anesthesia , chemistry , biochemistry
The purpose of this study was to determine the role of alcohol‐induced maternal hypothermia in the teratogenic actions of alcohol. C57BL/6J mice were administered an acute dose of alcohol (5.8 g/ kg orally) or isocaloric sucrose on day 10 of gestation. One half of each group was placed for 6 hr in an incubator set at 32°C and the other half was housed in the incubator at room temperature (22°C). As expected, acute prenatal alcohol exposure at this time of gestation was associated with decreased birth weight and an increase in limb and kidney malformations. The significant alcohol × environmental temperature interaction on these dependent variables indicated that the teratogenic insult was not attenuated, but was in fact even greater for the 32°C/alcohol group. An absence of a main effect of environmental temperature indicated that the 32°C environment, per se, was not teratogenic. Thus, maternal hypothermia is probably not an etiological factor in animal models of fetal alcohol syndrome. Moreover, antagonism of alcohol‐induced maternal hypothermia exacerbates the teratogenic actions of alcohol observed at room temperature.