Neurophysiological assessment of auditory, peripheral nerve, somatosensory, and visual system functions after developmental exposure to ethanol vapors

Toxicological outcomes in rats exposed to inhaled ethanol during gestation

“…The lack of clear effects of inhaled ethanol in this study is consistent with generally null results from assessments of sensory functions (Boyes et al, 2014), and several tests of learning and memory such as Morris water maze and trace fear conditioning in littermates of these rats. Even so, a deficit in response inhibition was observed in other littermates from the 21,000 ppm group in tests of choice reaction time in this latter work .…”

Prenatal exposure to vapors of gasoline–ethanol blends causes few cognitive deficits in adult rats

“…The Nelson et al (1985a,b;1988) observations suggesting minimal toxicity of inhaled ethanol relative to ingested ethanol were supported by a recent series of studies designed to evaluate the role of ethanol in toxicity of gasoline-ethanol fuel blends Boyes et al, 2014;Oshiro et al, 2014). In these studies pregnant rats inhaled ethanol (5000 to 21,000 ppm) from GD 9 to 20, a critical period for CNS development (Rice and Barone, 2000).…”

Use of novel inhalation kinetic studies to refine physiologically-based pharmacokinetic models for ethanol in non-pregnant and pregnant rats

“…Pregnant rats exposed from gestational day 9-20 by the W-B method in Experiment 3 were not acclimated in this manner, because that study was designed to mirror the larger developmental neurotoxicity study which utilized Hazelton H1000 ''live-in'' W-B exposure chambers, where dams were housed continuously (also gestational day 9-20), and acclimation was not performed Boyes et al, 2014;Oshiro et al, 2014).…”

“…Experiment 3 was performed with two purposes: (1) to provide a companion PK dataset for a neurodevelopmental toxicology study with pregnant rats (Boyes et al, 2014), and (2) to fill data gaps surrounding the kinetics of inhaled EtOH during gestation. Regarding the first purpose, this PK study replicated the exposure scenario used in a neurodevelopmental toxicology study to document tissue concentrations of EtOH in pregnant rats exposed to the high concentration of EtOH vapor and to verify model-derived estimates in rats exposed to lower concentrations of the vapor.…”

“…Instead, we elected to determine peak, rather than time-course BECs and BrECs in pregnant and fetal rats, and then to compare these data to BECs and BrECs in the toxicity literature and from Experiment 1. Because our neurodevelopmental toxicity study Boyes et al, 2014;Oshiro et al, 2014) required use of W-B chambers to generate large numbers of offspring for behavioral, sensory, and motor activity assessments, and ethical considerations precluded the use of nose-only cones to repeatedly expose pregnant rats, we used a W-B exposure system for this experiment. Regarding target tissues, we assumed that a model capable of accurately simulating both BEC and BrEC in adult non-pregnant and pregnant rats would also accurately simulate the liver and eye concentrations from both life-stages, reducing the need to collect the liver and eyes from both fetuses and adults.…”