Maternal and paternal alcohol consumption increase offspring susceptibility to Pseudomonas aeruginosa ocular infection.

Male rats that consumed liquid alcohol diets containing 35%, 17.5 or 0% ethanol-derived calories for a minimum of 3 weeks were bred to females which were fed similar diets during pregnancy. At approximately 50 days of age, offspring were challenged with 10 X 10(7) Pseudomonas aeruginosa onto the scarified cornea. The ocular response, evaluated macroscopically, for 3 weeks, revealed a significant dose-related effect of both maternal and paternal alcohol exposure. The higher the parental alcohol consumption the earlier and the more frequently the cornea of progeny perforated. There was no effect of sex of offspring or interaction between maternal and paternal factors. Histopathology confirmed the above data in that progeny of parents receiving 0% or lower-dose alcohol treatment had less severe corneal pathology than progeny of parents with higher alcohol doses.