Park Eunkyue, Dumas Ruth, Schuller-Levis Georgia, Rabe Ausma
New York State Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities, 1050 Forest Hill Road, Staten Island, NY 10314, USA.
Neurosci Lett. 2004 Sep 30;368(3):345-8. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2004.08.001.
Prenatal exposure to alcohol alters postnatal function of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Hyperresponsiveness to stress, or increased secretion of corticosterone, is a commonly studied effect in offspring of rats exposed to alcohol during a substantial period of gestation. No studies have reported on stress hormone secretion following alcohol exposure on a single day during embryonic development even though exposure at this time may damage the hypothalamus and pituitary. To explore the effect of an acute exposure, we used the offspring of C57BL/6J mice exposed to alcohol or saline on embryonic day (E) 9 (2.9 g/kg administered twice, 4h apart). At 7.5 or 22 months of age these mice were subjected to a 12-h restraint stress, or merely kept in the same environment without restraint. After the 12-h period, a blood sample was obtained from the retro-orbital plexus, and analyzed for the amount of corticosterone. The 7.5-month old group of alcohol-treated offspring were indeed hyperresponsive to restraint stress, but the 22-month old mice were not. Whether the normal-appearing corticosterone response of the old alcohol-exposed mice indicated adaptation to restraint, an aging-associated ceiling effect in corticosterone secretion, or an expression of pathology, cannot be decided on the basis of present data.
孕期暴露于酒精会改变下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴的产后功能。对应激的高反应性或皮质酮分泌增加，是在孕期相当长一段时间内暴露于酒精的大鼠后代中常见的研究效应。尽管在胚胎发育期间的某一天暴露于酒精可能会损害下丘脑和垂体，但尚无研究报道此时暴露于酒精后应激激素的分泌情况。为了探究急性暴露的影响，我们使用了在胚胎第9天（E9）暴露于酒精或生理盐水的C57BL/6J小鼠的后代（给予2.9 g/kg，分两次给药，间隔4小时）。在7.5或22月龄时，对这些小鼠施加12小时的束缚应激，或仅将其置于相同环境中而不施加束缚。12小时后，从眶后丛采集血样，并分析皮质酮的含量。7.5月龄经酒精处理的后代小鼠确实对应激束缚反应过度，但22月龄的小鼠并非如此。根据现有数据，无法确定老龄酒精暴露小鼠看似正常的皮质酮反应是表明对束缚的适应、皮质酮分泌中与衰老相关的上限效应，还是病理表现。
