Embryo cardio-placental anomaly in murine organogenesis following maternal alcohol consumption. Effects on the VEGF/receptors system

SOBARZO C; CALVO JC; VENTUREIRA, MR; CEBRAL E

Buenos Aires

Congreso; XVIII Jornadas Anuales Multidisciplinarias de la Sociedad Argentina de Biología (SAB); 2016

SAB

Maternal alcohol consumption causesthe fetal alcohol syndrome, characterized by various congenital diseases.Previously, we saw delayed embryo growth and increased dysmorphogenesis afterperigestational 10% alcohol treatment up to murine organogenesis. Sinceembryo-fetal cardiogenesis is one of the targets of maternal alcohol intake andcardiac abnormalities may be closely related to altered labyrinthine vasculardevelopment due to imbalances in the VEGF/receptors system, the objectives wereanalyzed, the organogenic embryo cardiac histopathology (H&E), thelabyrinthine histo-morphology and growth (H&E, nuclear Hoechst fluorescent staining, ImagePro Plus), the proliferation (PCNA immunohistochemistry (IHC), the apoptoticindex (TUNEL) and VEGF, KDR and Flt-1 expressions (IHC and western blot (WB) inthe embryo-trophoblast tissues. Ethanol 10%/drinking water was administered tomurine CF-1 females for 15 days before and until day 10 of gestation (TF) (Controlfemales (CF) without ethanol). TF had elevated % of embryos withirregular-discontinuous endocardium (p<0.01) and disorganized myocardium(p<0.01, vs CF). The PCNA-positive cell Nr/area tissue of ventricularmyocardium was lower than in CF (p<0.05), which correlated with reduced VEGFexpression (p<0.05). However, the embryonic immunoexpression and levels ofKDR and Flt-1 receptors increased (p<0.05, vs CF). The trophoblastic zone ofTF had histological alterations, increased trophoblast giant cells withirregular nuclei, and reduced labyrinthine growth with increased trophoblasticapoptosis. In TF-derived placenta, the VEGF immunostaining was lower but Flt-1was higher vs CF. Murine perigestational alcohol exposure leads to embryo cardiopathyand abnormal labyrinthine growth associated with impairment of the angiogenic VEGF/receptorssystem.