title: Quantitative analysis of nanoscale intranuclear structural alterations in hippocampal cells in chronic alcoholism via transmission electron microscopy imaging.
abstract: Chronic alcoholism is known to alter the morphology of the hippocampus, an important region of cognitive function in the brain. Therefore, to understand the effect of chronic alcoholism on hippocampal neural cells, we employed a mouse model of chronic alcoholism and quantified intranuclear nanoscale structural alterations in these cells. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images of hippocampal neurons were obtained, and the degree of structural alteration in terms of mass density fluctuation was determined using the light-localization properties of optical media generated from TEM imaging. The results, which were obtained at length scales ranging from ~30 to 200 nm, show that 10-12 week-old mice fed a Lieber-DeCarli liquid (alcoholic) diet had a higher degree of structural alteration than control mice fed a normal diet without alcohol. The degree of structural alteration became significantly distinguishable at a sample length of ~100 nm, which is the typical length scale of the building blocks of cells, such as DNA, RNA, proteins and lipids. Interestingly, different degrees of structural alteration at such length scales suggest possible structural rearrangement of chromatin inside the nuclei in chronic alcoholism.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Materials Science, BioNanoPhotonics Laboratory, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152, United States of America.
authors.forename: Peeyush
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sahay
authors.forename: Pradeep K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Shukla
authors.forename: Hemendra M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Ghimire
authors.forename: Huda M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Almabadi
authors.forename: Vibha
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tripathi
authors.forename: Samarendra K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Mohanty
authors.forename: Radhakrishna
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.forename: Prabhakar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pradhan
mesh_terms: D000437:Alcoholism / Q000473:pathology*; D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D000431:Ethanol / Q000633:toxicity*; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000166:cytology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000648:ultrastructure
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol