Alcohol exposure inhibits adult neural stem cell proliferation

Alcohol exposure can reduce adult proliferation and/or neurogenesis, but its impact on the ultimate neurogenic precursors, neural stem cells (NSCs), has been poorly addressed. Accordingly, the impact of voluntary consumption of alcohol on NSCs in the subventricular zone (SVZ) of the lateral ventricle was examined in this study. The NSC population in adult male C57BL/6J mice was measured after voluntary alcohol exposure in a two-bottle choice task using the neurosphere assay, while the number of NSCs that had proliferated 2 weeks prior to tissue collection was indexed using bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) retention. There was a significant decrease in the number of BrdU-retaining cells in alcohol-consuming mice compared with controls, but no difference in the number of neurosphere-forming cells that could be derived from the SVZ of alcohol-consuming mice compared with controls. Additionally, PCNA-labeled cells in the SVZ tended to be lower, but there was no difference in BrdU labeling in the dentate gyrus following alcohol exposure. To determine alcohol's direct impact on NSCs and their progeny, neurospheres derived from naïve mice were treated with alcohol in vitro. Neurosphere formation was reduced by 100 mM alcohol without reducing cell viability. These findings are the first to assess the impact of moderate voluntary alcohol consumption on selective measures of adult NSCs and indicate that such exposure alters NSC proliferation dynamics in vivo and alcohol has direct but dissociable effects on the expansion and viability on NSCs and their progeny in vitro.