Effects of chronic and acute ethanol treatment during prenatal and early postnatal ages on testosterone levels and sexual behaviors in rats

Androgen Threshold to Activate Copulation Differs in Male Rats Prenatally Exposed to Alcohol, Stress, or Both Factors

“…The alcohol diet used induces a mean consumption of approximately 12 g of ethanol/kg of body weight/day by the dam, yielding maternal blood alcohol levels of about 150 mg/dl (Ward et al, 1996a). Our findings are in agreement with other studies that report that gonadally intact males derived from dams exposed to alcohol during pregnancy ejaculate normally (Chen and Smith, 1979;Dahlgren, Eriksson, Gustafsson, Harthon, Hård, and Larsson, 1989;Hård, Dahlgren, Engel, Larsson, Liljequist, Lindh, and Musi, 1984;McGivern et al, 1998;Ward et al, 1996a). It is in combination with stress that alcohol exposure has a consistently depressant effect on male copulatory behavior.…”

Effects of quercetin and fish n-3 fatty acids on testicular injury induced by ethanol in rats

“…Ethanol exposure is known to suppress male reproductive activity in laboratory animals and humans (Martinez et al ., ). It has been reported that acute ethanol administration results in testicular injury (Dahlgren et al ., ), while chronic ethanol consumption results in testicular atrophy, imbalance of testosterone production, impaired reproductive performance, enhanced testicular germ cell apoptosis and increased oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation in both humans and experimental animals (Rosenblum et al ., ; Grattagliano et al ., ; Zhu et al ., ; El‐Sokkary, ; Kurus et al ., ). In our study, we examined the effects of quercetin and fish n‐3 fatty acids on ethanol‐induced testicular injury.…”

Prenatal alcohol and stress interact to attenuate ejaculatory behavior, but not serum testosterone or LH in adult male rats.

“…However, NA males able to ejaculate did exhibit fewer mounts. Essentially normal male copulatory patterns have previously been reported in male rats prenatally exposed only to alcohol (Chen & Smith, 1979;Dahlgren et al, 1989;Hard et al, 1984). Slight alterations in the copulatory pattern were found when males were exposed to alcohol prenatally and for the first 10 days postpartum (Parker, Udani, Gavaler, & Van Thiel, 1984).…”