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Fetal Alcohol Effects in Rats Exposed Pre‐ and Postnatally to a Low Dose of Ethanol
Author(s) -
Vaglenova J.,
Petkov V. V.
Publication year - 1998
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.1530-0277.1998.tb04313.x
Subject(s) - offspring , gestation , lactation , fetal alcohol syndrome , pregnancy , ethanol , fetus , medicine , endocrinology , physiology , teratology , biology , biochemistry , genetics
Wistar rats were exposed pre‐ and/or postnatally to a low dose of ethanol (1 g/kg of body weight of dams/day) via maternal peroral intubation. This dose significantly increased the mortality rate (23 to 32% vs. 7% in controls) in offspring exposed to ethanol during pregnancy, with a continued postnatal exposure having no additional effect. However, offspring cross‐fostered to dams that had been exposed to ethanol only during gestation (the offspring themselves never being directly exposed to ethanol) displayed an even greater (59%) mortality. Growth of the offspring was initially delayed, but 9 weeks after birth their body weight reached that of the controls. The two‐way active avoidance test showed an impairment, compared with the controls, of learning and memory in both male and female adolescent (9‐week‐old) rats, as well as in male (but not in female) 5‐month‐old rats born of dams exposed to ethanol during gestation and lactation. In the group of male rats treated prenatally and postnatally with ethanol, 60% were “poor learners,” compared with 33% in the control group. Results suggest that ethanol at a dose of 1 g/kg/day administered to dams during gestation and lactation produced growth and behavioral changes in the offspring.