Effects of acute alcohol exposure during selected days of gestation in C3H mice.

This investigation was designed to evaluate the teratogenic potential of a single alcohol exposure on one of nine specific days of gestation using a mouse model. C3H mice were intubated with alcohol on either Day 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 14, 16, or 18 of pregnancy in a dose of 0.0, 2.5, or 5.0 g/kg. On day 19 of gestation, the fetuses were removed by caesarian section, weighted, and fixed in Bouin's solution for subsequent free-hand sectioning. The results demonstrated that (1) acute prenatal alcohol exposure tended to decrease fetal body weight as the dose of alcohol increased, an effect that was most pronounced following exposure on Day 18 of gestation, and (2) neither the dose of alcohol nor the day of acute exposure significantly influenced implantations, resorptions, dead fetuses, or the incidence of fetal malformations across groups.