Paternal alcohol exposure affects offspring behavior but not body or organ weights in mice

Male mice consumed liquid alcohol diets containing 20, 10, or 0% ethanol-derived calories (EDC) for 56-61 days. Animals fed the 10 and 0% EDC diets were pair-fed to 20% EDC animals. A nontreated ad libitum group was included to assess the effects of pair-feeding. After treatment, males were bred to nontreated females. Litter size, birthweight, bodyweight at 21 or 55 days of age, and organ weights except for thymus were not affected by paternal alcohol ingestion. There was a dose-related decrease in activity at 20 and 24 days of age in an activity chamber and a dose-related decrease in serum testosterone levels at 55 days of age in male offspring sired by alcohol-consuming males. Offspring sired by males consuming the 20% EDC diet also required fewer trials to learn a passive avoidance task and had longer latencies to reach the choice point in a T maze.