Parental Alcohol History & Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

Randall, Carrie

Abstract

The adverse effects of maternal alcohol consumption on the outcome of pregnancy is well documented in animals and humans. During the course of our studies in this area in the past two years with inbred mice, we have developed a workable acute and chronic animal model to study issues related the teratological effects of parental alcohol consumption on the offspring. Studies are proposed to follow-up some of the findings/observations from the initial funding period, as well as to branch out into other issues related to maternal alcoholism and pregnancy. More specifically, inbred mice from the C3H and C57BL strain will be used to assess the effects of maternal exposure to alcohol prior to pregnancy on voluntary alcohol selection during gestation as well as the outcome of pregnancy, the interaction of alcohol administration during pregnancy with aspirin intake, and the outcome of subsequent pregnancy with or without alcohol administration in female offspring that were exposed to alcohol, themselves, in utero. Finally, studies are proposed to examine whether short-term exposure to alcohol in C57BL mice produces morphological defects when adequate controls and quantification is used. In the chronic administration studies, alcohol will be administered in a vitamin/mineral fortified liquid diet while in acute experiments, it will be administered intragastrically. In the chronic experiments, the control diet will be isocaloric to the alcohol diet and will be pair-fed. Intubation solutions will be isocaloric, as well, and food will be pair-fed. In each experiment, an untreated chow control group will be included. Teratologic evaluations for external and visceral defects will be performed at the time of caesarian-section on Gestation-Day 19 fetuses. Eviscerated fetuses will be examined for skeletal defects following clearing and staining. The long-term objective of our research program is to develop a viable animal model for testing intervention strategies (either chemical, nutritional, or psychological) to reduce or eliminate the adverse consequences of maternal alcoholism on the offspring.