Effect of prenatal ethanol exposure on activity and shuttle avoidance behavior in adult C57 mice

Although the morphological teratogenic actions of ethanol have been well established in mice, studies on the behavioral teratogenic effects of alcohol have been primarily conducted with rats. The purpose of this study was to examine the behavioral effects of prenatal alcohol exposure in C57 mice, a strain known to be highly sensitive to the teratogenic actions of ethanol. Pregnant mice were administered a liquid diet containing 25% ethanol-derived calories (EDC) from day 5 through day 18 of gestation. Control animals were pair-fed an isocaloric 0% EDC diet during the same period of time, with sucrose substituted for ethanol. At 23 days of age, offspring were tested for spontaneous locomotor activity in an open field. At 70 days of age, different offspring were tested in a shuttle-avoidance task. The results demonstrated that the 25% EDC progeny were more active than controls. In addition, prenatal alcohol exposure produced a deficit in acquisition and performance of a shuttle-avoidance task. Alcohol-treated offspring made fewer avoidance responses and required more trials to reach a criterion performance of 10/10 avoidances consecutively followed by at least 9/10 avoidances. These results importantly contribute to the development of an animal model of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome in which both the behavioral and morphological consequences of prenatal alcohol exposure may be assessed in the same species.