Effects of acute, in utero, alcohol exposure on growth and electrolyte metabolism in male offspring of C57BL/10J mice.

The effects of acute low-dose maternal alcohol exposures were investigated in C57B1/10J mice offspring. Pregnant mice were randomly placed into three alcohol groups and were injected twice intraperitoneally on gestation day 7, 0 hours and gestation day 7, 4 hours, with one of the following dosages of 25% alcohol: Group 2 received 1.25 Gm/Kg body weight; Group 3 2.50 Gm/Kg body wt.; Group 4 3.75 Gm/Kg body wt. A control group (Group 1) received .015 ml/gm body wt. of physiological saline. At birth all offspring were weighed and observed for any gross physical abnormalities. On day 25, all female offspring and mothers were sacrificed. The male pups were maintained until day 61. On day 61, the male pups were placed in individual metabolic cages where food and water consumption, and urine excretion were monitored for 24 hrs. On day 62, these animals were sacrificed. Blood was drawn for serum calcium (Ca) and phosphorous (P) determination. Brains, kidneys, testes, hearts and thymus glands were removed and weighed. Ca and P levels were also measured in the urine. No significant difference in litter size and fetal weight was obtained among the four groups. There was no evidence of physical abnormalities in the alcohol groups compared to the control one. The 62 day old pups from all three alcohol groups had significantly lower serum and urine levels of Ca and P than the control group, with the lowest values recorded for Group 4. There was no significant difference in final body weight but small organ size differences were observed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)