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Vol. 51 No. 1, 2012
Prenatal Ethanol Exposure Increases Depressive-Like Behavior
and Central Estrogen Receptor α and Oxytocin Expressions in Adult
Female Mandarin Voles
Feng-Qin
He1,*, Jie Zhang2, and Xiang Guo1
1Institute
of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, Department of Life Sciences, Xian
Univ. of Arts and Science, Xian 710065, China
2College of Life Sciences, Shaanxi Normal Univ., Xian
710062, China
AbstractFeng-Qin He, Jie Zhang, and Xiang Guo (2012) Prenatal exposure to ethanol is
considered to increase risk of depression in offspring. Herein, we
tested the effect of prenatal ethanol exposure on adult female mandarin
voles (Microtus mandarinus).
We verified depression-like behavior of female offspring exposed to
ethanol prenatally (exposure group), and control females (control
group) during a forced swimming test. For the exposure group, ethanol
doses (750 mg/kg body weight in 0.9% saline, 10 ml/kg) were orally
administered by clean drinking tubes to 5 pregnant females from day 14
of their pregnancy until postnatal day 0. In the control group, 6
pregnant females received 0.9% saline (10 ml/kg) but no ethanol. At 90
d of age, the exposure and control groups were tested during a forced
swimming, and levels of serum estradiol (E2), estrogen
receptor alpha-immunoreactive neurons (ERα-IRs) and
oxytocinimmunoreactive neurons (OT-IRs) were measured. The exposure
group exhibited significantly decreased locomotion and increased
immobility during the swim test. The level of serum E2 was higher in
the exposure group, and numbers of ERα-IRs in the bed nucleus of the
stria terminalis (BNST), medial amygdaloid nucleus (MeA), hypothalamic
paraventricular nucleus (PVN), and supraoptic nucleus (SON) in the
exposure group were significantly lower. Numbers of OT-IRs in the
hypothalamic PVN and SON of the exposure group were lower than those of
control animals. Our results suggest that prenatal ethanol exposure may
lead to increases in serum E2 levels and decreased ERα and OT in the
central nervous system of adults and may be related to the development
of depression-like behaviors.
Key words: Prenatal ethanol exposure, Forced
swimming test, Estradiol, Estrogen receptor α, Oxytocin.
*Correspondence: Tel: 86-29-88241902. Fax:
86-29-88253976. E-mail:hefengqin68220@163.com
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