Project description:Exposure to alcohol during early embryonic or fetal development has been linked with a variety of adverse outcomes, the most common of which are structural and functional abnormalities of the central nervous system. Behavioral and cognitive deficits reported in individuals exposed to alcohol in utero include intellectual impairment, learning and memory difficulties, diminished executive functioning, attention problems, poor motor function and hyperactivity. The economic and social costs of these outcomes are substantial and profound. Improvement of neurobehavioural outcomes following prenatal alcohol exposure requires greater understanding of the mechanisms of alcohol-induced damage to the brain. Here we use a mouse model of relatively moderate ethanol exposure early in pregnancy and profile gene expression in the hippocampus and caudate putamen of adult male offspring. The effects of offspring sex and age on ethanol-sensitive hippocampal gene expression were also examined.
Project description:Exposure to alcohol during early embryonic or fetal development has been linked with a variety of adverse outcomes, the most common of which are structural and functional abnormalities of the central nervous system. Behavioral and cognitive deficits reported in individuals exposed to alcohol in utero include intellectual impairment, learning and memory difficulties, diminished executive functioning, attention problems, poor motor function and hyperactivity. The economic and social costs of these outcomes are substantial and profound. Improvement of neurobehavioural outcomes following prenatal alcohol exposure requires greater understanding of the mechanisms of alcohol-induced damage to the brain. Here we use a mouse model of relatively moderate ethanol exposure early in pregnancy and profile gene expression in the hippocampus and caudate putamen of adult male offspring. The effects of offspring sex and age on ethanol-sensitive hippocampal gene expression were also examined.
Project description:Exposure to alcohol during early embryonic or fetal development has been linked with a variety of adverse outcomes, the most common of which are structural and functional abnormalities of the central nervous system. Behavioral and cognitive deficits reported in individuals exposed to alcohol in utero include intellectual impairment, learning and memory difficulties, diminished executive functioning, attention problems, poor motor function and hyperactivity. The economic and social costs of these outcomes are substantial and profound. Improvement of neurobehavioural outcomes following prenatal alcohol exposure requires greater understanding of the mechanisms of alcohol-induced damage to the brain. Here we use a mouse model of relatively moderate ethanol exposure early in pregnancy and profile gene expression in the hippocampus and caudate putamen of adult male offspring. The effects of offspring sex and age on ethanol-sensitive hippocampal gene expression were also examined.
Project description:The in utero environment is a critical determinant of the immediate and future health of the developing fetus. Two of the most commonly used drugs during pregnancy are alcohol and nicotine. While prolonged gestational exposure to alcohol or nicotine has been associated with a range of adverse outcomes in the offspring, the consequences of exposure during early gestation only are less well understood. Here, we use mouse models of relatively moderate early gestational ethanol or nicotine exposure to profile gene expression in whole male embryos at 9.5 days post coitum using an Illumina microarray.
Project description:We aimed to determine the toxicogenomic impacts and the mechanisms involved in preimplantation embryonic survival following 0.2% ethanol exposure in porcine embryos. Gene expression changes were measured with a porcine embryo specific microarray and confirmed by RT-qPCR. Compared to control, ethanol exposure led to a 43% decrease in blastocyst rate and activated pathways associated with oxidative stress and nervous system damage, such as TP53 and TGF.
Project description:Moderate alcohol exposure during pregnancy can result in brain gene expression changes in resulting offspring. We have developed a mouse model of FASD that involves moderate ethanol exposure in mid-gestation (trimester 2 equivalent) achieved by injections of ethanol. We have previously shown that this model results in phenotypes relevant to FASD. Since ethanol is known to directly affect the expression of genes in the developing brain leading to abnormal cell death, changes to cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation, and potential changes to epigenetic patterning, we hypothesize that there will be gene expression changes immediately following acute ethanol exposure in the fetal brain. We used a microarray experiment and focused on the genes identified to evaluate the genome-wide alterations to the fetal brain transcriptome caused by prenatal ethanol exposure.
Project description:To understand how chronic intermittent ethanol vapor exposure changes the RNA content of brain-derived extracellular vesicles, we isolated total RNA and used lncRNA/mRNA microarray analysis to examine differential expression following CIE exposure in male animals
Project description:To understand how chronic intermittent ethanol vapor exposure changes the RNA content of brain-derived extracellular vesicles, we isolated total RNA and used lncRNA/mRNA microarray analysis to examine differential expression following CIE exposure in female animals
Project description:Exposure to alcohol during early embryonic or fetal development has been linked with a variety of adverse outcomes, the most common of which are structural and functional abnormalities of the central nervous system [1]. Behavioural and cognitive deficits reported in individuals exposed to alcohol in utero include intellectual impairment, learning and memory difficulties, diminished executive functioning, attention problems, poor motor function and hyperactivity [2]. The economic and social costs of these outcomes are substantial and profound [3], [4]. Improvement of neurobehavioural outcomes following prenatal alcohol exposure requires greater understanding of the mechanisms of alcohol-induced damage to the brain. Here we use a mouse model of relatively moderate ethanol exposure early in pregnancy and profile gene expression in the hippocampus and caudate putamen of adult male offspring. The effects of offspring sex and age on ethanol-sensitive hippocampal gene expression were also examined. All array data are available at the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) repository under accession number GSE87736.
Project description:Moderate alcohol exposure during pregnancy can result in brain gene expression changes in resulting offspring. We have developed a mouse model of FASD that involves moderate ethanol exposure in mid-gestation (trimester 2 equivalent) achieved by injections of ethanol. We have previously shown that this model results in phenotypes relevant to FASD. Since ethanol is known to directly affect the expression of genes in the developing brain leading to abnormal cell death, changes to cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation, and potential changes to epigenetic patterning, we hypothesize that there will be gene expression changes immediately following acute ethanol exposure in the fetal brain. We used a microarray experiment and focused on the genes identified to evaluate the genome-wide alterations to the fetal brain transcriptome caused by prenatal ethanol exposure. To generate samples, female C57BL/6J mice were given ethanol injections (2.5g/kg of ethanol in saline) twice on gestational days 14 and 16 to produce acute ethanol exposure effects. Control females were injected with the same volume of saline. Dams were sacrified on gestational day 16, following ethanol exposure, and whole brains from fetuses were then extracted. RNA was isolated from brain tissue and samples from three mice were pooled to reduce litter effects and the pooled samples were hybridized on Affymetrix arrays (2 control and 2 ethanol chips, total n=12 mice).