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Updated: Dec 10, 2025

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
Toxicant and teratogenic effects of prenatal alcohol
Amanda H Mahnke1, Amy M Adams1, Andrew Z Wang1
1Texas A&M University Health Science Center, Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics, Bryan, TX 77807 USA.
Abstract:
Prenatal alcohol exposure can result in growth, cognitive, and behavioral deficits due to the toxicant and teratogenic effects of alcohol. Alcohol is an unusual toxicant, because, unlike other toxicants, it is consumed and has biological effects in the millimolar range. Cerebral cortical development is particularly vulnerable to both alcohol's acute and long-term reprogramming effects. Recent evidence suggests that neuroinflammation may be a persistent result of prenatal alcohol exposure and that modes of cellular communication capable of carrying miRNAs, such as extracellular vesicles, may be an integral part of long-term changes to cellular communication and inflammation following in utero alcohol exposure.
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