Combined effects of moderate ethanol consumption and a low-protein diet during gestation on brain development in BALB/c mice.

We investigated whether or not moderate ethanol consumption during gestation would interact with the effects of a low-protein diet in affecting brain development in BALB/c mice. The independent variables included fetal body and brain weights and cross-sectional area in midsagittal sections of the corpus callosum (CC) and anterior commissure (CA). Pregnant animals were fed either ethanol 12% v/v or an isocaloric sucrose solution from days 5 to 19 of gestation, when fetal development was assessed. In addition, the animals were fed semisynthetic isocaloric diets containing either 8 or 20% casein. All animals were pair-fed to those in the group receiving ethanol and 20% casein; an additional control group was fed lab chow ad libitum. There was clearly an interactive effect of diet and ethanol consumption on blood alcohol concentrations: those in the low-protein group were significantly higher than in the normal-protein group. Similarly, the effect on body weight in the group receiving low protein plus ethanol was greater than the additive effect of either treatment alone, although this may have been due partly to differences in litter size. Brain weight in this group was also significantly less than in the other three groups, which did not differ from each other. Covariance analysis, adjusting brain weight for body weight, suggested a brain-sparing effect of low protein but not ethanol. Neither treatment affected the incidence of the CC being absent at midline. The low-protein treatment decreased the cross-sectional area of both the CC and CA; the effect on the CC was independent of brain weight. There was no effect of ethanol on either of those measures.