Morphological alterations in hippocampus after long-term alcohol consumption in mice.
Golgi methods were used to examine the hippocampus of laboratory mice that received alcohol-containing or control diets for 4 months followed by a 2-month alcohol-free period. Long-term alcohol consumption resulted in a significant loss of dendritic spines on hippocampal pyramidal cells and dentate granule cells. This study provides evidence that long-term alcohol consumption, in the absence of malnutrition, produces morphological damage to the central nervous system.
D000437:Alcoholism / Q000473:pathology*; D000818:Animals; D003712:Dendrites / Q000648:ultrastructure; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D011712:Pyramidal Tracts / Q000473:pathology