Fetal exposure to alcohol leads to a wide range of neurological deficits collectively termed fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). The CDC estimates that FASD currently affects as many as 4.5 out of every 1000 births within the United States. Existing intervention strategies can improve the quality of life in affected individuals, provided they are initiated at the earliest age possible. Unfortunately, early FASD diagnosis is difficult, partly because behavioral manifestations of the disorder are not apparent until childhood. We propose to develop a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based strategy to detect cellular-level morphological alterations in the developing cerebral cortex. Nonhuman primate research subjects will be bred after being trained to drink 1.5 g/kg/day of ethanol, or an isocaloric amount of maltose/dextrin solution. Animals will continue to drink throughout the first 60 days of pregnancy, after which access to ethanol will be terminated. Fetal brain T2-weighted and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data will be acquired on 3 groups of ethanol or maltose/dextrin animals: group 1 will be scanned on gestational day (G)85, group 2 on G110, and group 3 on G135. Immediately after MRI, fetuses will be delivered by cesarian section and brains will be prepared for histological processing.
The first aim for this experiment is to characterize the effects of early ethanol exposure on cerebral cortical thickness, surface area, and water diffusion anisotropy over the period ranging from G85 to G135.
The second aim i s to validate the cortical thickness effects of ethanol exposure using unbiased stereological techniques, and to characterize the biological source of the neuroimaging observations. The latter will be accomplished by determining cerebral cortical cell numbers, measuring the volume fraction of the neuropil, and quantifying morphological complexity of cortical neuronal axonal and dendritic arbors. This work will provide an objective strategy for characterizing the effects o early ethanol exposure on subsequent development of the cerebral cortex, which will facilitate earlier detection of FASD that is currently achievable.

Public Health Relevance

Fetal exposure to alcohol results in the leading cause of environmentally related birth defects and mental retardation in the western world, and incurs such broad-reaching economic consequences that even prevention strategies deemed to be expensive (e.g. up to $850,000 per child) are deemed cost effective. A major obstacle to therapeutic intervention strategies for combating this neurodevelopmental disorder is the current inability to make a conclusive diagnosis until childhood. The objective of these experiments is to develop fetal MRI strategies for characterizing the biological effects associated with the development of subsequent behavioral impairments.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01AA021981-02
Application #
8598852
Study Section
Developmental Brain Disorders Study Section (DBD)
Program Officer
Matochik, John A
Project Start
2012-12-20
Project End
2017-11-30
Budget Start
2013-12-13
Budget End
2014-11-30
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2014
Total Cost
$519,726
Indirect Cost
$187,814
Name
Oregon Health and Science University
Department
Other Basic Sciences
Type
Other Domestic Higher Education
DUNS #
096997515
City
Portland
State
OR
Country
United States
Zip Code
97239
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Jimenez, Vanessa A; Wang, Xiaojie; Newman, Natali et al. (2018) Detecting neurodevelopomental effects of early-gestation ethanol exposure: a non-human primate model of ethanol drinking during pregnancy. Alcohol Clin Exp Res :
Kroenke, Christopher D; Bayly, Philip V (2018) How Forces Fold the Cerebral Cortex. J Neurosci 38:767-775
Lo, Jamie O; Schabel, Matthias C; Roberts, Victoria H J et al. (2017) First trimester alcohol exposure alters placental perfusion and fetal oxygen availability affecting fetal growth and development in a non-human primate model. Am J Obstet Gynecol 216:302.e1-302.e8
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Schabel, M C; Roberts, V H J; Lo, J O et al. (2016) Functional imaging of the nonhuman primate Placenta with endogenous blood oxygen level-dependent contrast. Magn Reson Med 76:1551-1562
Studholme, Colin (2015) Mapping the developing human brain in utero using quantitative MR imaging techniques. Semin Perinatol 39:105-12
Wang, Xiaojie; Pettersson, David R; Studholme, Colin et al. (2015) Characterization of Laminar Zones in the Mid-Gestation Primate Brain with Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Histological Methods. Front Neuroanat 9:147
Frias, Antonio E; Schabel, Matthias C; Roberts, Victoria H J et al. (2015) Using dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI to quantitatively characterize maternal vascular organization in the primate placenta. Magn Reson Med 73:1570-8
Wang, Xiaojie; Kroenke, Christopher D (2015) Utilization of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Research Involving Animal Models of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders. Alcohol Res 37:39-51

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