Fetal alcohol effects in long- and short-sleep mice: activity, passive avoidance, and in utero ethanol levels

Genetic differences in susceptibility to fetal alcohol effects (FAE) have been suggested by both human and animal studies. The Long-Sleep (LS) and Short-Sleep (SS) mouse lines, selectively bred for differences in ethanol-induced narcosis, provide a model for studying differential alcohol sensitivity in the etiology of FAE. LS and SS mice were intubated with either 2.9 g/kg (20% w/v) ethanol (E) or an isocaloric amount of sucrose (S) twice per day (6 hr apart) on Days 7 through 15 of pregnancy. An untreated control group (C) was maintained for each line. Offspring were fostered to lactating Rockland-Swiss mice at birth. LS offspring prenatally exposed to ethanol exhibited increased open-field activity relative to LS controls, but this effect was due to the overactivity of one litter. Activity for SS mice prenatally exposed to ethanol did not differ from control levels. Ethanol content in blood (280 mg/dl), amniotic fluid (258 mg/dl), and fetal tissue (230 mg/dl) did not differ in similarly treated LS and SS dams. In a second experiment, females were treated from Days 7 through 18 of gestation, and their offspring were tested for either open-field activity or passive avoidance learning. There were no group differences in open-field activity, but LS mice prenatally exposed to alcohol took more trials to reach a passive avoidance criterion than their controls, whereas similarly treated SS mice did not differ from controls. These results suggest that genetically-mediated sensitivity to ethanol influences susceptibility to FAE and that this may be task specific.