Octanol antagonism of ethanol teratogenesis.

Abstract

SPECIFIC AIMSAlcohol may cause birth defects in part by disrupting the developmentally critical L1 cell adhesion molecule. Because 1-octanol antagonizes ethanol inhibition of L1-mediated cell adhesion, we used mouse whole embryo culture to test whether 1-octanol also prevents ethanol teratogenicity.PRINCIPAL FINDINGS1. Low concentrations of 1-octanol are not toxic in whole embryo cultureTo determine the toxicity of 1-octanol, gestational day 8 (GD8) whole mouse embryos were cultured for 6 h in the absence and presence of 1-octanol and transferred to control medium for an additional 20 h. Somite pairs were counted after a total of 26 h in culture. Based on somite counts, treatment with 3 μM 1-octanol did not produce a delay in embryonic development, whereas 10 μM and higher concentrations of 1-octanol caused increasing dysmorphogenesis (Fig. 1a⤻ ). Figure 1.Effect of 1-octanol and ethanol on the morphology of cultured C57Bl/6J GD8 mouse embryos. a) Mean ± se number of somite pairs after treatment for 6 h w...