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Updated: Oct 23, 2025
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Assessing Teratogenic Changes in a Zebrafish Model of Fetal Alcohol Exposure
Published on: March 20, 2012
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Pre-implantation alcohol exposure induces lasting sex-specific DNA methylation programming errors in the developing
L M Legault1,2, K Doiron1, M Breton-Larrivée1,2
1CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center, 3175 Chemin de La Côte-Sainte-Catherine, Montréal, QC, H3T 1C5, Canada.
Clinical Epigenetics
|August 24, 2021
Summary
Early alcohol exposure before implantation can cause brain defects and alter DNA methylation, contributing to Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) in offspring.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Biology
- Epigenetics
Background:
- Prenatal alcohol exposure impacts brain DNA methylation, contributing to Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).
- Limited data exists on alcohol's effects during pre-implantation, a critical period of DNA methylation reprogramming.
- Understanding early exposure effects is crucial for deciphering brain developmental rewiring.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of pre-implantation alcohol exposure on brain development.
- To identify epigenetic alterations, specifically DNA methylation changes, following early alcohol exposure.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a pre-clinical in vivo mouse model.
- Administered binge-like alcohol exposure during the pre-implantation (8-cell) stage.
- Performed genome-wide DNA methylation analyses on fetal forebrains.
Main Results:
- Pre-implantation alcohol exposure resulted in significant morphological brain defects and adverse fetal developmental outcomes.
- Sex-specific alterations in DNA methylation were observed in fetal brains.
- Identified partial loss of DNA methylation maintenance at imprinting control regions and abnormal de novo methylation profiles in neural development pathways.
Conclusions:
- Alcohol-induced DNA methylation changes during pre-implantation can disrupt normal brain development.
- These epigenetic alterations may underlie neurodevelopmental issues observed in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD).
- Highlights the vulnerability of early embryonic stages to alcohol teratogenicity.
Keywords:
DNA methylationEarly embryonic developmentEpigenetic reprogrammingFetal alcohol spectrum disorderImprintingPrenatal exposureMore Related Videos
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