Similar metabolic response to acute ethanol intake in pregnant and non-pregnant rats either fed or fasted.

Plasma ethanol concentration 3 hr after its oral administration (3 g/kg body wt) did not differ in 20 day pregnant rats with virgin controls, and in both groups values were higher when studied after 24 hr fasted than when fed. In fed animals, blood glucose and liver glycogen concentrations were lower in pregnant than in virgin rats, whereas ethanol intake in both groups enhanced blood glucose levels, it reduced liver glycogen content only in virgins. In fetuses, maternal ethanol intake enhanced blood glucose levels. In fasted animals, ethanol intake decreased blood glucose levels in pregnant and virgin animals but did not affect these levels in fetuses. Ethanol intake enhanced beta-hydroxybutyrate/acetoacetate ratio similarly in blood of pregnant and virgin rats when either fed or fasted, and it produced the same change in fetuses from fasted mothers. Results indicate that the metabolic response to acute ethanol does not differ between pregnant and non-pregnant animals, and it is proposed that fetuses passively follow the metabolic changes occurring in their mothers after receiving ethanol.