Reyes E, Wolfe J, Savage D D
Department of Pharmacology, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque 87131.
Physiol Behav. 1989 Jul;46(1):45-8. doi: 10.1016/0031-9384(89)90319-3.
The hippocampal formation is sensitive to the in utero exposure to ethanol. It is one brain area thought to play an important role in spatial memory. We examined radial arm maze performance in rats exposed to ethanol prenatally. Pregnant rats were placed into the following treatment groups: LC, 17% EDC (ethanol-derived calories), 35% EDC, PF 35% or PF 17%. The LC group was fed lab chow and water ad lib, the 17% EDC and 35% EDC groups were fed a liquid diet containing either 3.3% or 6.7% v/v ethanol, respectively. Pair-fed controls were fed the same volume of an isocaloric diet as was consumed by their respective ethanol-treated groups. At birth, litters were culled to six and cross fostered to untreated surrogate mothers. Testing was initiated at 60 days of age and continued until the test criterion was satisfied. One-half of the rats in the 35% EDC group did not reach criterion. The remainder of the 35% EDC group and the 17% EDC rats attained criterion but required twice as many trials as their respective pair-fed controls. These results suggest that in utero administration of ethanol affects spatial memory capacity in rat, an observation consistent with other deficits seen in hippocampus of rats prenatally exposed to ethanol.
海马结构对子宫内暴露于乙醇敏感。它是一个被认为在空间记忆中起重要作用的脑区。我们检测了产前暴露于乙醇的大鼠的放射状臂迷宫表现。将怀孕大鼠分为以下治疗组：LC组、17%乙醇衍生热量（EDC）组、35% EDC组、35% PF组或17% PF组。LC组自由摄取实验室饲料和水，17% EDC组和35% EDC组分别喂食含3.3%或6.7%（v/v）乙醇的液体饲料。配对喂食对照组喂食与其各自乙醇处理组消耗的等热量饲料相同体积的饲料。出生时，将窝仔数减少到6只，并交叉寄养给未处理的代孕母鼠。在60日龄开始测试并持续到满足测试标准。35% EDC组中有一半的大鼠未达到标准。35% EDC组的其余大鼠和17% EDC组的大鼠达到了标准，但所需的试验次数是其各自配对喂食对照组的两倍。这些结果表明，子宫内给予乙醇会影响大鼠的空间记忆能力，这一观察结果与产前暴露于乙醇的大鼠海马中出现的其他缺陷一致。
