Fetal alcohol syndrome and related disorders afflict nearly 1% of babies born in the U.S. Although the symptoms of these conditions are well known, the effects of alcohol exposure at the level of neuropeptide expression is largely unexplored. Here, the spatial analysis of neuropeptides expressed in both alcohol exposed and control groups of rat pups using mass spectrometry imaging is proposed. This will require the development of new sample preparation techniques and instrumentation capable of high sensitivity and resolution in the direct analysis of tissue. Specifically, rat pups will be exposed to alcohol shortly after birth to model the effects of binge drinking on human fetuses during the third trimester of pregnancy. The rat pups will be sacrificed at specific intervals following alcohol exposure, and their harvested brains will be frozen, sliced into thin sections, and prepared for imaging by matrix assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry. Peptides expressed differently by alcohol exposed and control groups will be analyzed further by dissociation techniques to obtain sequence information for comparison with genomic data. Techniques developed will be applicable for the analysis of other drugs of abuse.
| Jurchen, John C; Rubakhin, Stanislav S; Sweedler, Jonathan V (2005) MALDI-MS imaging of features smaller than the size of the laser beam. J Am Soc Mass Spectrom 16:1654-9 |
