title: Prenatal ethanol exposure impairs spatial cognition and synaptic plasticity in female rats.
abstract: Chronic prenatal ethanol exposure (CPEE) can impair long-term potentiation (LTP) in the male hippocampus. Sexually specific alterations were frequently reported in female animals that had been prenatally exposed to ethanol. This study aimed to examine the effects of CPEE on spatial learning and memory, as well as on hippocampal synaptic plasticity in female adolescent rats. Female offspring were selected from dams that had been exposed to 4 g/kg/day of ethanol throughout the gestational period. Subsequently, performance in the Morris water maze (MWM) was determined, while LTP and depotentiation were measured in the hippocampal CA3-CA1 pathway. In the behavioral test, the escape latencies in both initial and reversal training stages were significantly prolonged. Interestingly, LTP was considerably enhanced while depotentiation was significantly depressed. Our results suggest a critical role of synaptic plasticity balance, which may prominently contribute to the cognitive deficits present in CPEE offspring.
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences and Key Laboratory of Bioactive Materials, Ministry of Education, Nankai University, 300071 Tianjin, PR China; Max Planck Institute for Neurological Research, 50931 Cologne, Germany. Electronic address: leian.nku@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: An
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences and Key Laboratory of Bioactive Materials, Ministry of Education, Nankai University, 300071 Tianjin, PR China. Electronic address: zhangtao@nankai.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003071:Cognition / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology; D000431:Ethanol / Q000633:toxicity*; D005260:Female; D018782:Maze Learning / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects / Q000139:chemically induced* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000523:psychology; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol
keywords: Cognitive deficits; Depotentiation; Ethanol; Female offspring rats; Synaptic plasticity balance