Effects of prenatal ethanol exposure on alcohol intake and anxiety responses: modulation by environmental enrichment or social isolation

DI DOI, P.; FERNANDEZ M.; HAEGER, P.; PAUTASSI R.M.

Puerto Varas

Congreso; VIII International meeting of the Latinamerican Society of Research on Alcoholism; 2017

Latinamerican Society of Research on Alcoholism

Several studies indicate that prenatal ethanol exposure (PEE) alters ethanol intake at adolescence. At present, however, little is known on how this effect of PEE is modulated by exposure to protective (e.g., enriched) or adverse (e.g., with high stress load) environments.This work analyzed chronic ethanol intake (12 24-h tests, every other day save Sundays for 4 weeks), and anxiety responses in young adult Wistar rats, males and females, exposed or not to prenatal alcohol (continuous access to 10% ethanol, throughout gestation and during the first week of breastfeeding). As adolescents (postnatal day 21 to 42) the rats were housed under conditions of environmental enrichment, under stress (social deprivation) or under standard, animal-facility, conditions. Anxiety responses were evaluated through the light-dark box test. Social isolated animals, particularly the males, showed increased consumption of alcohol during the initial tests, as compared to enriched or control animal, and display higher levels of anxiety. A paradoxical result was animals treated prenatally with alcohol exhibited reduced alcohol intake than vehicle-exposed controls. This effect was not significantly modified by housing conditions at adolescence. The paradoxical effect could be explained by the development of aconditioned aversion towards the taste or smell of alcohol, due to the association between these properties of the drug and maternal maltreatment or lack of appropriate maternal care. Future studies should assess these possibility.