Granato A, Santarelli M, Sbriccoli A, Minciacchi D
Institute of Anatomy, Catholic University, Rome, Italy.
Anat Embryol (Berl). 1995 Jan;191(1):11-23. doi: 10.1007/BF00215293.
The thalamo-cortico-thalamic loop was investigated in adult rats exposed to ethanol during the last week of fetal life. Animals underwent either cortical or thalamic injections of lectin-conjugated horseradish peroxidase. Results demonstrate that prenatal exposure to ethanol causes permanent changes in the thalamocortical circuits. Alterations of thalamo-cortical and cortico-thalamic projections are concentrated at the level of axon terminal fields. The most severe thalamic damage is observed in the anterior intralaminar and midline nuclei; crossed cortico-thalamic projections also appear to be severely impaired. In the cortex, the damage to thalamic terminals displays a medio-lateral gradient of increasing severity through sensori-motor areas, with the lateral fields more impaired. Cells of origin of thalamo-cortical and cortico-thalamic projections are less affected by prenatal ethanol exposure: in the thalamus and layer 5 of sensori-motor cortex labeled cells exhibit normal values of areal numeric density. Conversely, cortico-thalamic neurons of layer 6, especially in the lateral agranular sensori-motor field, display smaller values of areal density than those of normal animals. Possible mechanisms underlying the establishment of these abnormalities are discussed.
对在胎儿期最后一周接触乙醇的成年大鼠的丘脑 - 皮质 - 丘脑环路进行了研究。动物接受了皮质或丘脑注射凝集素结合辣根过氧化物酶。结果表明，产前接触乙醇会导致丘脑皮质回路发生永久性变化。丘脑皮质和皮质丘脑投射的改变集中在轴突终末场水平。在前内侧核和中线核中观察到最严重的丘脑损伤；交叉的皮质丘脑投射似乎也严重受损。在皮质中，丘脑终末的损伤在感觉运动区域呈现出从内侧到外侧严重程度增加的梯度，外侧区域受损更严重。丘脑皮质和皮质丘脑投射的起源细胞受产前乙醇暴露的影响较小：在丘脑和感觉运动皮质第5层，标记细胞的面积数值密度显示正常。相反，第6层的皮质丘脑神经元，特别是在外侧无颗粒感觉运动区，其面积密度值比正常动物小。讨论了这些异常形成的可能机制。
