In utero exposure to ethanol affects postnatal development of T- and B-lymphocytes, but not natural killer cells

The effect of intrauterine exposure to ethanol on lymphocyte development in the neonatal period was studied in C57BI/6J mice. Mice were bred, and then the female mice were assigned to 1 of 3 diet groups, 25% ethanol-derived calories (EDC), pair-fed control, or ad libitum laboratory chow. At birth, all offspring were cross-fostered to surrogate mothers who had been fed laboratory chow. At weekly intervals, the neonatal mice were weighed, and 4 mice from each group were used to assess the development of splenic lymphocytes. The total number of splenocytes was similar in all three groups at each sampling. The number of T-cells, B-cells, and natural killer (NK) cells was measured by flow cytometry. T-cells and NK cells did not vary significantly among the three diet groups. However, the total number of B-cells was decreased for the first 3 weeks of life in the ethanol-exposed animals. The function of the T-cells and B-cells was determined by assessing the response to lipopolysaccharide, pokeweed mitogen, phytohemagglutinin, and concanavalin A. The response to all four mitogens was significantly reduced in the ethanol-exposed animals and did not recover to control levels until 4-5 weeks of life. Ethanol exposure had no significant effect on the kinetics of acquisition of NK lytic function, as assessed by determining the killing of chromium-51 labeled YAC-1 tumor target cells. These data show that prenatal exposure to ethanol causes a transient immunodeficiency in some, but not all compartments of the immune system.