title: Neonatal alcohol exposure and early development of motor skills in alcohol preferring and nonpreferring rats.
abstract: It has been suggested that differential sensitivity to alcohol might influence the severity of effects seen in offspring following gestational alcohol exposure and data exist to support this contention. Previously, we found that neonatal alcohol treatment produced greater increases in activity at the time of weaning in alcohol preferring (P) than by alcohol nonpreferring (NP) rat lines. Whereas these lines were genetically selected for extremes in alcohol preference they also differ on "sensitivity" to alcohol. Neonatal exposure in rats is used to model human third trimester alcohol exposure and the present study examined motor skills in P and NP rats following such exposure. On postnatal days 4 through 7, P and NP rats received a daily dose of 6 g/kg in four administrations 2 h apart. The alcohol was delivered in a milk solution through an indwelling intragastric cannula. Artificially reared and normally reared controls were included in the study. At 21 and 43 days of age, rats were tested for abnormalities in gait by walking an inclined runway and for dysfunction in balance using the parallel bar test. Neonatal alcohol exposure increased falling from the bars and altered gait and these effects were similar in the P and NP lines. The parallel bar test was generally too difficult for the NP rats, limiting the utility of this test in trying to determine the effects of differential alcohol sensitivity. Thus, the present results suggest that neonatal alcohol exposure had equivalent effects on gait and balance, as measured by falling from parallel bars, in P and NP rats.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, San Diego State University, CA 92120, USA.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Melcer
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gonzalez
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Somes
authors.forename: E P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Riley
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001835:Body Weight / Q000187:drug effects; D002755:Choice Behavior; D000431:Ethanol / Q000633:toxicity*; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000187:drug effects*; D051381:Rats
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol