effects of prenatal ethanol exposure on exploratory and anxiety-like behavior and social interaction

CABRERA VALENTIN; C. PORCARI; PABLO FERNANDEZ; LAURA VIVAS; MOLINA JUAN CARLOS; MIRANDA MORALES SEBASTIAN; A. GODINO

Encuentro; IX INTERNATIONAL MEETING of the Latin American Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism (LASBRA); 2019

The aim of the present work was to analyze the effect of prenatal binge-like ethanol exposure to a moderate dose (2.0 g/kg; group Pre-EtOH) during the gestational days 17 to 20 on exploratory and anxiety-like behavior and social interaction of adolescent offspring (postnatal day 28-33) .Pre-EtOH rats exhibited hypolocomotion in the open field test, showing a significant less distance travelled than control group (p=0.04). This effect was also evident when only the center area of the open field was taken into account (p=0.003). No significant differences could be observed for time spent in the center of the chamber. A significantly lower number of rearing behavior was also evidenced (p= 0.001) in Pre-EtOH animals and in males adolescents, but the interaction of the factors did not attached significance.In the elevated plus maze, the time spent on the closed arms (p=0.03) and time spent in open arms (p=0.02) were significantly different as a function of prenatal treatment. PreEtOH group spent more time in closed arms than control. Head dipping behavior was also significantly lower in PreEtOH than control group (p=0.0002). The analysis of behavior in the three-chamber social interaction test did not show any significant differences in the interaction with a new congener or objet between the control and Pre-EtOH group.In conclusion, the prenatal binge-like exposure to a moderate ethanol dose reduced exploratory motor activity and increased anxiety-like behavior during adolescence. However, the Pre-EtOH exposure did not seems to affect social interaction with novel congeners at this age.