Olateju Oladiran I, Bhagwandin Adhil, Ihunwo Amadi O, Manger Paul R
School of Anatomical Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Front Neuroanat. 2017 Nov 27;11:110. doi: 10.3389/fnana.2017.00110. eCollection 2017.
We examined the effect of chronic prenatal alcohol exposure on certain neuronal systems involved with the sleep-wake cycle of C57BL/6J mice exposed to prenatal alcohol once they had reached 56 days post-natal. Pregnant mice were exposed to alcohol, through oral gavage, on gestational days 7-16, with recorded blood alcohol concentration (BAC)s averaging 1.84 mg/ml (chronic alcohol group, CA). Two control groups, an oral gavage sucrose control group (chronic alcohol control group, CAc) and a non-treated control group (NTc), were also examined. At 56 days post-natal, the pups from each group were sacrificed and the whole brain sectioned in a coronal plane and immunolabeled for cholineacetyltransferase (ChAT), tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), serotonin (5HT) and orexin-A (OxA) which labels cholinergic, catecholaminergic, serotonergic and orexinergic structures respectively. The overall nuclear organization and neuronal morphology were identical in all three groups studied, and resemble that previously reported for laboratory rodents. Quantification of the estimated numbers of ChAT immunopositive (+) neurons of the pons, the TH+ neurons of the pons and the OxA+ neurons of the hypothalamus showed no statistically significant difference between the three experimental groups. The stereologically estimated areas and volumes of OxA+ neurons in the CA group were statistically significantly larger than the groups not exposed to prenatal alcohol, but the ChAT+ neurons in the CA group were statistically significantly smaller. The density of orexinergic boutons in the anterior cingulate cortex was lower in the CA group than the other groups. No statistically significant difference was found in the area and volume of TH+ neurons between the three experimental groups. These differences are discussed in relation to the sleep disorders recorded in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD).
我们研究了慢性产前酒精暴露对出生后56天的C57BL/6J小鼠睡眠-觉醒周期相关特定神经元系统的影响。怀孕小鼠在妊娠第7至16天通过灌胃给予酒精，记录的血液酒精浓度（BAC）平均为1.84毫克/毫升（慢性酒精组，CA）。还检查了两个对照组，一个灌胃蔗糖对照组（慢性酒精对照组，CAc）和一个未处理对照组（NTc）。在出生后56天，每组幼崽被处死，全脑在冠状平面切片，并分别针对胆碱乙酰转移酶（ChAT）、酪氨酸羟化酶（TH）、5-羟色胺（5HT）和食欲素-A（OxA）进行免疫标记，这些标记分别标记胆碱能、儿茶酚胺能、5-羟色胺能和食欲素能结构。所研究的三组中，整体核组织和神经元形态相同，与先前报道的实验啮齿动物相似。对脑桥中ChAT免疫阳性（+）神经元、脑桥中TH+神经元和下丘脑中OxA+神经元估计数量的定量分析显示，三个实验组之间无统计学显著差异。CA组中OxA+神经元的体视学估计面积和体积在统计学上显著大于未暴露于产前酒精的组，但CA组中ChAT+神经元在统计学上显著更小。CA组前扣带回皮质中食欲素能终扣的密度低于其他组。三个实验组之间TH+神经元的面积和体积未发现统计学显著差异。结合胎儿酒精谱系障碍（FASD）儿童记录的睡眠障碍对这些差异进行了讨论。
