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Updated: Sep 30, 2026

Construction of Vapor Chambers Used to Expose Mice to Alcohol During the Equivalent of all Three Trimesters of Human Development
Published on: July 13, 2014
Fetal alcohol exposure blocks full masculinization of the dorsolateral nucleus in rat spinal cord
I L Ward1, R D Romeo, J H Denning
1Department of Psychology, Villanova University, PA 19085-1699, USA. IWARD@EMAIL.VILL.EDU
Abstract:
Male rats prenatally exposed to a combination of stress and ethanol show severely impaired ejaculatory patterns. This study examined two sexually dimorphic nuclei in the lumbar spinal cord implicated in the control of male copulatory reflexes in rats whose mothers were exposed to alcohol, to stress, or to both treatments during pregnancy. Alcohol exposure led to a marked decrease (22%) in the number of motor neurons in the dorsolateral nucleus (DLN) of the adult male offspring, but no significant change in cell count was detectable in the sexually dimorphic nucleus of the bulbocavernosus (SNB). The combination of alcohol and stress did not enhance the effect on the DLN above that produced by alcohol alone. Somal sizes in the DLN and SNB were not altered by any of the treatment conditions. Alcohol exposure probably leads to incomplete masculinization of the DLN in male rats by decreasing testicular steroidogenesis during the fetal stage(s) when sexual differentiation is ongoing in that CNS structure.
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