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Acute paternal alcohol exposure impairs fertility and fetal outcome
T J Cicero1, B Nock, L H O'Connor
1Department of Psychiatry, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO.
Life Sciences
|January 1, 1994
Abstract:
An acute injection of an intoxicating dose of alcohol to male rats 24 hours prior to breeding with drug-naive females produced no discernible effect on copulatory activity, as reflected in vaginal plugs, but resulted in markedly (> 50%) reduced pregnancy rates. Fetal outcome was also markedly affected in offspring sired by alcohol-treated males: litter sizes were appreciably smaller (30%) and fetal mortality was more than 2 times higher than in controls. These results suggest that paternal alcohol use, like maternal alcohol abuse, may adversely affect fertility and fetal outcome.