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Updated: Jan 28, 2026
Reducing State Anxiety Using Working Memory Maintenance
Published on: July 19, 2017
Maternal ethanol exposure reshapes CART system in the rat brain: Correlation with development of anxiety, depression
Manoj P Dandekar1, Ashish P Bharne2, Pradip D Borkar2
1Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Cardiology, McGovern Medical School, The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, (UTHealth), Houston, TX, USA.
Abstract:
Ethanol ingestion by a mother during pregnancy entails adverse consequences for her offspring. In this study, adult female rats were given access to ethanol from 8 days prior to mating to post-parturition weaning, and the effects on her offspring were evaluated. We investigated changes in the cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript peptide (CART), a neuropeptide involved in the central effects of ethanol in the frame of reward and stress processing circuits. CART-immunoreactivity was augmented in the cells of Edinger-Westphal (EW) nucleus and lateral hypothalamus (LH) and fibers in the LH and ventral tegmental area (VTA) in 25-day-old pups. On the other hand, a significant decrease was seen in the expression of the peptide in paraventricular nucleus (PVN), arcuate nucleus (ARC), hippocampus (CA1 and CA2) and locus coeruleus (LC). The offspring at 85 days showed increased anxiety in elevated plus maze and immobility in forced swim test suggestive of depression. These rats also failed to discriminate between novel versus familiar object in object recognition test indicating memory deficits. Their brains showed decreased CART-immunoreactivity in nucleus accumbens shell, lateral bed nucleus of stria terminalis, PVN, ARC, LH, hippocampus and LC as compared to age-matched control offspring. However, CART-immunoreactive profile in EW and fibers in VTA of 85-day-old offspring was similar to that in the control. Thus, regional imbalance in the CART system of the offspring of alcoholic dams seems correlated with the affective and emotional abnormalities and memory deficits.
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