Jacobian Maps Reveal Under-reported Brain Regions Sensitive to Extreme Binge Ethanol Intoxication in the Rat.

Qingyu Zhao,Natalie M Zahr,Edith V Sullivan,Adolf Pfefferbaum,Kilian M Pohl,Michael Fritz

doi:10.3389/fnana.2018.00108

Qingyu Zhao, Natalie M Zahr + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fnana.2018.00108

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Abstract

Individuals aged 12–20 years drink 11% of all alcohol consumed in the United States with more than 90% consumed in the form of binge drinking. Early onset alcohol use is a strong predictor of future alcohol dependence. The study of the effects of excessive alcohol use on the human brain is hampered by limited information regarding the quantity and frequency of exposure to alcohol. Animal models can control for age at alcohol exposure onset and enable isolation of neural substrates of exposure to different patterns and quantities of ethanol (EtOH). As with humans, a frequently used binge exposure model is thought to produce dependence and affect predominantly corticolimbic brain regions. in vivo neuroimaging enables animals models to be examined longitudinally, allowing for each animal to serve as its own control. Accordingly, we conducted 3 magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sessions (baseline, binge, recovery) to track structure throughout the brains of wild type Wistar rats to test the hypothesis that binge EtOH exposure affects specific brain regions in addition to corticolimbic circuitry. Voxel-based comparisons of 13 EtOH- vs. 12 water- exposed animals identified significant thalamic shrinkage and lateral ventricular enlargement as occurring with EtOH exposure, but recovering with a week of abstinence. By contrast, pretectal nuclei and superior and inferior colliculi shrank in response to binge EtOH treatment but did not recover with abstinence. These results identify brainstem structures that have been relatively underreported but are relevant for localizing neurocircuitry relevant to the dynamic course of alcoholism.

Highlights

Young adult drinking poses a dire public health issue (Mathurin and Deltenre, 2009) as youth are initiating alcohol use earlier and experiencing more alcohol-related problems than ever before (Gore et al, 2011)
The ventricles showed an 87% expansion with binge EtOH exposure that was reversed by 1 week of abstinence (87% shrinkage)
A voxel-based approach identified significant changes in response to binge EtOH treatment throughout the rat brain that parallel regions identified in human alcoholism (e.g., Zahr et al, 2011a; Zahr, 2014; Zahr and Pfefferbaum, 2017; Sullivan et al, 2018)

Summary

Introduction

Young adult drinking poses a dire public health issue (Mathurin and Deltenre, 2009) as youth are initiating alcohol use earlier and experiencing more alcohol-related problems than ever before (Gore et al, 2011). People aged 12–20 years drink 11% of all alcohol consumed in the United States (U.S.) with more than 90% consumed in the form of binge drinking. Related Conditions, 15% of young adult males aged 21–25 years drink 10–14 drinks and 13% drink >15 drinks per occasion (Hingson et al, 2017). Assuming a young adult U.S man weighs 180 lbs, 12 drinks can result in blood alcohol levels (BALs) of ∼200 mg/dL after 1 h, and 14 drinks in BALs of 230 mg/dL after 3 h of drinking (Miller and Munoz, 2013). Onset alcohol use is a strong predictor of future alcohol dependence (Hawkins et al, 1997)

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