Abstract
Among the numerous consequences of prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) is an increase in anxiety-like behavior that can prove debilitating to daily functioning. A significant body of literature has linked gestational day 12 (G12) heavy ethanol exposure with social anxiety, evident in adolescent males and females. However, the association between non-social anxiety-like behavior and moderate alcohol exposure, a more common pattern of drinking in pregnant women, is yet unidentified. To model moderate PAE (mPAE), we exposed pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats to either room air or vaporized ethanol for 6 h on G12. Adolescent offspring were then tested on postnatal days (P) 41–47 in one of the following four anxiety assays: novelty-induced hypophagia (NIH), elevated plus maze (EPM), light-dark box (LDB) and open-field (OF). Our findings revealed significant increases in measures of anxiety-like behavior in male PAE offspring in the NIH, LDB and OF, with no differences observed in females on any test. Additionally, male offspring who demonstrated heightened anxiety-like behavior as adolescents demonstrated decreased anxiety-like behavior in adulthood, as measured by a marble-burying test (MBT), while females continued to be unaffected in adulthood. These results suggest that mPAE leads to dynamic changes in anxiety-like behavior exclusively in male offspring.
Highlights
Maternal alcohol consumption can contribute to a variety of deficits which can be broadly defined as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs)
Our study aimed to investigate the influence of gestational day 12 (G12) moderate PAE (mPAE) on expression of anxiety-like behaviors in adolescent offspring
Under a model of mPAE utilizing vaporized ethanol exposure on G12, in which blood ethanol concentrations (BECs) gradually increased, male adolescent offspring demonstrated increased anxiety-like behavior in three out of four behavioral assays, whereas females did not show mPAE-associated anxiety-like alterations across any test
Summary
Maternal alcohol consumption can contribute to a variety of deficits which can be broadly defined as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs). FASDs can manifest through physical, behavioral, cognitive and psychological impairments that range in classification from mild to severe (Autti-Rämö and Granström, 1991; Hamilton et al, 2003; Roebuck-Spencer et al, 2004; Kodituwakku, 2007; Simmons et al, 2010; Riley et al, 2011; Nguyen et al, 2013; Williams et al, 2014). Physical abnormalities include stunted growth and facial dysmorphia, while cognitive tests have found that children diagnosed with FASD show below-average IQs, and poor performance in complex language and arithmetic tests.
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