Effects of maternal administration of alcohol on fetal brain development.

The effects of oral administration of alcohol during pregnancy and lactation on fetal and neonatal development were determined. Female Wistar rats were pair-fed nutritionally adequate liquid diets containing either alcohol or isocaloric carbohydrates starting on day 1 of gestation. Blood alcohol levels were determined in the pregnant animals throughout the experiment. On the day of parturition the litters were culled to six. The pups were sacrificed on day 30 and gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (gamma GTP) activity determined in liver and brain. gamma GTP activity was determined to be elevated in the alcohol treated rats in all areas of brain studied except in the cortex and striatum. Additionally, the alcohol treated animals were smaller than the controls and exhibited higher serum and liver gamma GTP activities. Routine light microscopic plastic sections revealed large vacuolated spaces mainly confined to cortical layer V in the alcoholic rats. Golgi studies also revealed a decreased number of dendritic spines on pyramidal cell dendrites in the alcohol treated animals. These data suggest that exposure to alcohol in utero and in the postnatal period has a dramatic effect on neurons and processes in the cerebral cortex as well as on the membrane bound enzyme, gamma GTP.