Effects of ethanol on offspring of C57BL/6J mice alcoholized during gestation

Abstract

The effects of chronic alcohol consumption during pregnancy were analysed in the gestation and offspring of alcoholized mice. Female C57BL/6J mice were placed overnight with stud males and the presence of a sperm plug in the next morning indicated the onset of gestation. Pregnant mice were distributed in two weight-matched groups. In the alcoholized group, the mice received a high protein liquid diet ad libitum containing 27.5% of ethanol-derived calories (5.28% v/v) from gestation day 5 to 19. The control group received the same volume of diet containing isocaloric amounts of maltose-dextrin substituted for ethanol. After postnatal day zero, the dams received food pellets and tap water ad libitum. On postnatal day 6 the pups were counted and weighed at variable intervals up to the 60th day of life. The majority of the pregnant dams that have received ethanol completed the gestational period, and the chronic consumption of alcohol did not interfere with the number of dams that gave birth. The alcoholized and control dams gained an equivalent weight and consumed an equivalent volume of diet throughout the gestation. The number of pups from alcohol diet dams was 46,26% smaller compared with the control group. There were less male than female pups in the offspring of alcoholized mice. Teratogeny like gastroschisis and limb malformation were present in the offspring of alcoholized dams. The body weight of the offspring of alcoholized mice increased from the 18th to the 36th postnatal day.

Chronic ethanol intake leads to structural and molecular alterations in the rat endometrium

“…Body weight of UChB rats was significantly higher compared to the UChA rats, as has been already proposed by Martinez et al (1999Martinez et al ( , 2001). Grinfeld, Goldenberg, Segre, and Chadi (1999) and Buthet et al (2013) found no significant differences between the body weights of mice and pregnant rats treated with liquid diet containing 27.5% of the calories derived from ethanol. Moreover, Bo, Kruegen, Rudeen, and Symmes (1982) showed that the average body weight gain in Holtzman rats treated with ethanol at 2.5% and 5% during 28e77 days of age was lower in those receiving 5% ethanol.…”