Quantitative measures of mature neuronal morphology after in utero ethanol exposure

Dendritic networks of neocortical pyramidal cells and cerebellar Purkinje cells of mature adult rats which were exposed to ethanol in utero were analyzed for quantitative deviations from the normal branching patterns present in neurons of unexposed rats. No significant quantitative differences were found between cells of mature ethanol-exposed and control animals. The absence of quantitative deficits in the branching dendrites of these neuronal populations (which do exhibit ethanol-induced maturational retardation when examined at birth) suggests that ethanol treatment confined to the short gestation period in these animals may be of insufficient duration to produce irreversible maturational deficits in the growth pattern of dendrites.