Effects of acute binge ethanol intoxication on apoptosis in hippocampus in rats with chronic restraint stress

FERNANDEZ M.; PAUTASSI R.M.; FERREYRA, A; DE OLMOS, S

Cordoba

Congreso; XXXIII Congreso Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Neurociencias; 2018

Sociedad Argentina de Neurociencias

Restraint stress (RS) induces substantial neurotoxicity in the hippocampus, yet most of the studiesanalyzing this phenomenon have employed protracted RS (i.e., ≈ 21 days). Binge ethanoladministration can induce brain toxicity, analogous to that induced by stress, an effect that isaffected by age. It could be postulated that ethanol intoxication may facilitate stress-inducedneurotoxicity, perhaps to a greater extent in young vs. old subjects. We analyzed if adolescents,adults or aged rats exposed to five episodes of RS exhibit neurodegeneration in the hippocampus[CA1, CA2, CA3 and dentate gyrus (DG)] and whether this was modulated by a binge, yet brief(two administrations of 2.5 g/kg ethanol, separated by 120 min), ethanol administration.Compared to adult or aged rats, adolescents exhibited significantly greater RS-inducedneurotoxicity in dorsal CA1 and CA2; and significantly greater ethanol-induced neurotoxicity dorsalCA2. Across ages, there was a synergistic effect between RS and ethanol at the dorsal and ventralCA1. A similar potentiation of RS by ethanol, yet restricted to adolescents, was found at ventralCA2. The study highlights the vulnerability of the developing brain to alcohol insult and stressexposure.