Effect of ethanol on rat brain polyphosphoinositides

Female rats were allowed to consume ethanol during gestation and lactation, and brain polyphosphoinositides of the 21-day-old pups were quantified. Ethanol intake prevented the disappearance of the metabolically labile pools of phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate and phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bis-phosphate, which are rapidly degraded in the control group. In contrast, preweaning undernutrition left the size of these pools virtually unchanged, indicating a differential effect of the two nutritional regimens.