School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia.
PLoS One. 2013;8(1):e54924. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0054924. Epub 2013 Jan 30.
Prenatal exposure to high levels of alcohol is strongly associated with poor cognitive outcomes particularly in relation to learning and memory. It is also becoming more evident that anxiety disorders and anxiety-like behaviour can be associated with prenatal alcohol exposure. This study used a rat model to determine if prenatal exposure to a relatively small amount of alcohol would result in anxiety-like behaviour and to determine if this was associated with morphological changes in the basolateral amygdala. Pregnant Sprague Dawley rats were fed a liquid diet containing either no alcohol (Control) or 6% (vol/vol) ethanol (EtOH) throughout gestation. Male and Female offspring underwent behavioural testing at 8 months (Adult) or 15 months (Aged) of age. Rats were perfusion fixed and brains were collected at the end of behavioural testing for morphological analysis of pyramidal neuron number and dendritic morphology within the basolateral amygdala. EtOH exposed offspring displayed anxiety-like behaviour in the elevated plus maze, holeboard and emergence tests. Although sexually dimorphic behaviour was apparent, sex did not impact anxiety-like behaviour induced by prenatal alcohol exposure. This increase in anxiety - like behaviour could not be attributed to a change in pyramidal cell number within the BLA but rather was associated with an increase in dendritic spines along the apical dendrite which is indicative of an increase in synaptic connectivity and activity within these neurons. This study is the first to link increases in anxiety like behaviour to structural changes within the basolateral amygdala in a model of prenatal ethanol exposure. In addition, this study has shown that exposure to even a relatively small amount of alcohol during development leads to long term alterations in anxiety-like behaviour.
产前暴露于高水平的酒精与认知结果不佳密切相关，尤其是与学习和记忆有关。越来越明显的是，焦虑症和类似焦虑的行为可能与产前酒精暴露有关。本研究使用大鼠模型来确定产前暴露于相对少量的酒精是否会导致类似焦虑的行为，并确定这是否与外侧杏仁核的形态变化有关。妊娠 Sprague Dawley 大鼠在整个妊娠期内喂食含有无酒精（对照）或 6%（体积/体积）乙醇（EtOH）的液体饮食。雄性和雌性后代在 8 个月（成年）或 15 个月（老年）时进行行为测试。大鼠在行为测试结束时进行灌注固定，收集大脑，用于外侧杏仁核内锥体神经元数量和树突形态的形态学分析。EtOH 暴露的后代在高架十字迷宫、孔板和出现测试中表现出类似焦虑的行为。尽管表现出性别二态行为，但性别并未影响产前酒精暴露引起的类似焦虑行为。这种类似焦虑行为的增加不能归因于 BLA 内锥体神经元数量的变化，而是与树突棘沿树突顶端的增加有关，这表明这些神经元内的突触连接和活动增加。这项研究首次将类似焦虑行为的增加与产前乙醇暴露模型中外侧杏仁核内的结构变化联系起来。此外，这项研究表明，即使在发育过程中暴露于相对少量的酒精也会导致长期的类似焦虑行为改变。
