ALCOHOL EXPOSURE DURING PREGNANCY AND LACTATION AFFECTS RESPONSIVENESS TO ALCOHOL'S SENSORY AND PHARMACOLOGICAL PROPERTIES.

MOLINA, J.C.

Sao Pablo

Conferencia; 2011 Meeting of the Latin-American Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism; 2011

Latin-American Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism

ALCOHOL EXPOSURE DURING PREGNANCY AND LACTATION AFFECTS RESPONSIVENESS TO ALCOHOL'S SENSORY AND PHARMACOLOGICAL PROPERTIES. Molina, Juan. Instituto de Investigación Médica M. y M. Ferreyra (INIMEC - CONICET). Friuli 2434, Córdoba, CP 5000, 351-481465, Argentina. Córdoba, CP 5000, 351-4334064, juancmolina2003@yahoo.com Adolescent ethanol consumption greatly affects later etanol consumption: the earlier adolescents use ethanol, the more likely they will abuse ethanol later in life (DeWitt et al., 2000). Our suggestion (Spear and Molina, 2005), however, is that still earlier exposure to ethanol is responsible for – partially -- shaping adolescent ethanol consumption. In the present talk I will review an extensive set of early experiments with rats and mice showing that fetal or infantile ethanol exposure increases later ethanol ingestion (e.g., Chotro et al. 2007). Then, I will focus on experiments that have assessed not only classical consequences of fetal and infantile ethanol exposure (including growth deficiency, brain damage or craniofacial malformation), but also consequences for subsequent ethanol ingestion and noningestive measures of responsiveness to ethanol that might promote ethanol abuse (Abate et al., 2000, 2001, 2002). We suggest that, in addition to simple passive pre-exposure effects, associative conditioning is likely to occur in the fetus or infant when it is exposed to ethanol. this is, the young organism learns that chemosensory properties of ethanol (e.g., taste, flavor) or other stimuli present in the context of ethanol administration predict the positive rewarding postabsorptive effects of the drug. This process may result in increased seeking or consumption of the drug later in life. Recent experiments testing this intriguing hypothesis are described.