Effects of Six Weeks of Chronic Ethanol Administration on the Behavioral Outcome of Rats After Lateral Fluid Percussion Brain Injury

Abstract

This study examined the effects of 6 weeks of chronic ethanol administration on the behavioral outcome in rats after lateral fluid percussion (FP) brain injury. Rats were given either an ethanol liquid diet (ethanol diet-groups) or a pair-fed isocaloric sucrose control diet (control diet groups) for 6 weeks. After 6 weeks, the ethanol diet was discontinued for the ethanol diet rats and they were then given the control sucrose diet for 2 days. During those 2 days, the rats were trained to perform a beam-walking task and subjected to either lateral FP brain injury of low to moderate severity (1.8 atm) or to sham operation. In both the control diet and the ethanol diet groups, lateral FP brain injury caused beam-walking impairment on days 1 and 2 and spatial learning disability on days 7 and 8 after brain injury. There were no significant differences in beam-walking performance and spatial learning disability between brain injured animals from the control and ethanol diet groups. However, a trend towards greater behavioral deficits was observed in brain injured animals in the ethanol diet group. Histologic analysis of both diet groups after behavioral assessment revealed comparable ipsilateral cortical damage and observable CA3 neuronal loss in the ipsilateral hippocampus. These results only suggest that chronic ethanol administration, longer than six weeks of administration, may worsen behavioral outcome following lateral FP brain injury. For more significant behavioral and/or morphological change to occur, we would suggest that the duration of chronic ethanol administration must be increased.

Three Months of Chronic Ethanol Administration and the Behavioral Outcome of Rats After Lateral Fluid Percussion Brain Injury

“…Furthermore, CEAn of 6 weeks without any intoxication at the time of brain injury also did not affect the injury-induced cognitive impairment (Zhang et al, 1999). Because cognitive dysfunction is a major disability in surviving TBI patients and the majority of TBI patients had both chronic ethanol abuse and acute intoxication, this study examined the effects of 3 months of CEAn accompanied by intoxication (at the time of injury) on the cognitive and morphologic outcome of lateral fluid percussion (FP) brain injury in the rat.…”

“…Ethanol administration of about 6 weeks did not affect certain aspects of the neurochemical outcome (Prasad et al, 1997) or the neurologic motor deficits (Shapira et al, 1997;Zhang et al, 1999) associated with TBI in rats.…”

“…Male Sprague-Dawley rats, each weighing 100-125 g, were individually housed and divided into two groups. Rats were given Bioserve (Frenchtown, NJ) liquid diet containing ethanol or sucrose as described previously (Zhang et al, 1999). The ethanol diet was LD'82 containing 6.6% w/v ethanol (35% ethanol-derived calories), whereas the control diet was LD'82 containing sucrose.…”

“…The spatial learning ability of animals was evaluated with a Morris Water Maze (MWM) procedure essentially as described previously (Zhang et al, 1999). A circular black metal pool was filled with black-colored water to a depth of 35 cm, and a round black metal plate was placed 1 cm below the surface of water to serve as the hidden goal platform.…”

Effects of Ethanol and Naltrexone in a Model of Traumatic Brain Injury With Hemorrhagic Shock

“…Some laboratory studies, using a variety of TBI models and species, have found increased mortality, worse neuropathology, and worse neurological outcome in ethanol-treated animals (Albin and Bunegin, 1986;Flamm et al, 1977;Franco et al, 1988;Shapira et al, 1997). Other TBI studies have not demonstrated a deleterious effect of ethanol in TBI (Masse et al, 2000;Zhang et al, 1999) while one study suggests a possible neuroprotective effect (Kelly et al, 1997). In previous studies from our laboratory, which utilized a porcine fluid percussion model, we found early respiratory depression, decreased cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP), and decreased cerebral blood flow (CBF) in ethanol-treated animals (Zink and Feustel, 1995;Zink et al, 1993).…”