title: Could ethanol-induced alterations in the expression of glutamate transporters in testes contribute to the effect of paternal drinking on the risk of abnormalities in the offspring?
abstract: It has been known that a preconception paternal alcoholism impacts adversely on the offspring but the mechanism of the effect is uncertain. Several findings suggest that there are signalling systems in testis that are analogous to those known to be altered by alcoholism in brain. We propose that chronic alcohol affects these systems in a manner similar to that in brain. Specifically, we hypothesise that excessive alcohol may disturb glutamatergic-like signalling in testis by increasing expression of the glutamate transporter GLAST (EAAT1). We discuss ways how to test the hypothesis as well as potential significance of some of the tests as tools in the diagnostics of chronic alcoholism.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neurochemistry, Bosch Institute and Discipline of Anatomy and Histology, School of Medical Sciences, Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, 2006 Sydney, NSW, Australia. Electronic address: abul.kashem@sydney.edu.au.
authors.forename: Mohammed Abul
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Kashem
authors.affiliation: UQ Centre for Clinical Research, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4029, Australia. Electronic address: aven.lee@uq.edu.au.
authors.forename: Aven
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: UQ Centre for Clinical Research, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4029, Australia; School of Medical Sciences RMIT University, Melbourne, Bundoora, VIC 3083, Australia. Electronic address: d.pow@uq.edu.au.
authors.forename: David V
authors.initials: DV
authors.lastname: Pow
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neurobiology and Molecular Psychiatry, Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic; Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Veveří 97, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic. Electronic address: omarsery@sci.muni.cz.
authors.forename: Omar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Šerý
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neurochemistry, Bosch Institute and Discipline of Anatomy and Histology, School of Medical Sciences, Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney, 2006 Sydney, NSW, Australia. Electronic address: vibar@anatomy.usyd.edu.au.
authors.forename: Vladimir J
authors.initials: VJ
authors.lastname: Balcar
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000503:physiopathology; D027322:Amino Acid Transport System X-AG / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D001692:Biological Transport; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D000013:Congenital Abnormalities / Q000209:etiology; D000431:Ethanol / Q000737:chemistry*; D027341:Excitatory Amino Acid Transporter 1 / Q000378:metabolism*; D005220:Fathers; D005260:Female; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D005973:Glutamine / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008954:Models, Biological; D018812:Paternal Exposure; D012306:Risk; D015398:Signal Transduction; D013737:Testis / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D027322:Amino Acid Transport System X-AG; D027341:Excitatory Amino Acid Transporter 1; C493394:SLC1A3 protein, human; D005973:Glutamine; D000431:Ethanol; D018698:Glutamic Acid