Weinberg J, Kim C K, Yu W
Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
Alcohol. 1995 Jul-Aug;12(4):317-27. doi: 10.1016/0741-8329(95)00005-c.
The effects of early handling on physiological and hormonal responses of rats exposed to ethanol prenatally were studied. Male and female Sprague-Dawley rats from prenatal ethanol (E), pair-fed (PF), and ad lib-fed control (C) prenatal treatment groups were either handled (H) or nonhandled (NH) during the preweaning period and tested in adulthood. Early handling eliminated the deficit in preweaning weight gain observed in E compared to PF and C offspring. In adulthood, early handling eliminated the increased hypothermia observed in E and PF compared to C males following an ethanol challenge (2.0 g/kg, IP). In addition, H males displayed marginally less hypothermia overall than NH males. In contrast, handling accelerated the return to preinjection temperature in PF and C females but had no effect on E females. There were no significant differences among E, PF, and C rats in corticosterone (CORT) responses to ethanol challenge (1.5 g/kg, IP), but both males (marginally) and females in the H condition displayed higher CORT levels overall than NH rats. Early handling also eliminated the increased peak CORT response to restraint stress in E compared to C females, but did not affect the more prolonged elevation of CORT in E compared to PF and C females. There were no differences among E, PF, and C females in hippocampal type I and type II glucocorticoid receptor density or affinity. However, binding affinity of type II receptors was slightly but significantly increased in H compared to NH females. Together, these data indicate that early handling may modulate or attenuate some, but not all, of the adverse effects of fetal ethanol exposure on offspring growth and physiological responsiveness.
研究了早期处理对产前暴露于乙醇的大鼠生理和激素反应的影响。将来自产前乙醇（E）、配对喂养（PF）和自由进食对照（C）产前处理组的雄性和雌性Sprague-Dawley大鼠在断奶前进行处理（H）或不处理（NH），并在成年期进行测试。与PF和C组后代相比，早期处理消除了E组断奶前体重增加的缺陷。在成年期，与C组雄性相比，早期处理消除了E组和PF组在乙醇激发（2.0 g/kg，腹腔注射）后出现的体温过低增加的情况。此外，H组雄性总体上比NH组雄性体温过低的情况略少。相比之下，处理加速了PF组和C组雌性恢复到注射前体温的速度，但对E组雌性没有影响。E组、PF组和C组大鼠对乙醇激发（1.5 g/kg，腹腔注射）的皮质酮（CORT）反应没有显著差异，但H组的雄性（略有）和雌性总体上显示出比NH组大鼠更高的CORT水平。与C组雌性相比，早期处理还消除了E组对束缚应激的CORT峰值反应增加的情况，但与PF组和C组雌性相比，没有影响E组CORT升高时间更长的情况。E组、PF组和C组雌性在海马I型和II型糖皮质激素受体密度或亲和力方面没有差异。然而，与NH组雌性相比，H组II型受体的结合亲和力略有但显著增加。总之，这些数据表明，早期处理可能会调节或减轻胎儿乙醇暴露对后代生长和生理反应性的一些但不是全部的不良影响。
