PMID- 11106863
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20010111
LR  - 20220309
IS  - 0892-0362 (Print)
IS  - 0892-0362 (Linking)
VI  - 22
IP  - 5
DP  - 2000 Sep-Oct
TI  - Neonatal choline supplementation ameliorates the effects of prenatal alcohol 
      exposure on a discrimination learning task in rats.
PG  - 703-11
AB  - Prenatal alcohol exposure can disrupt brain development and lead to a myriad of 
      behavioral alterations, including motor coordination deficits, hyperactivity, and 
      learning deficits. There remains a need, however, to identify treatments and 
      interventions for reducing the severity of alcohol-related neurodevelopmental 
      disorders. Some of the alcohol-induced deficits in learning may be related to 
      alterations in cholinergic functioning. Interestingly, there is a growing 
      literature demonstrating that pre- and/or early postnatal choline supplementation 
      can lead to long-term enhancement in learning and memory and cholinergic activity 
      in rats. The present study examined whether such early choline supplementation 
      might counter the effects of prenatal alcohol treatment on a visuospatial 
      discrimination task. Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to one 
      of three prenatal treatment groups. One group received a liquid diet containing 
      35% ethanol-derived calories (EDC) from gestational day (GD) 6-20. A second group 
      served as a pair-fed (PF) control group and the third group served as an ad lib 
      lab chow (LC) control. On postnatal day (PD) 2, pups were assigned within-litter 
      to one of three postnatal treatments: choline, saline vehicle, or no treatment. 
      Choline and vehicle pups were intubated with a choline chloride solution or 
      vehicle daily from PD 2 to 21, whereas the non-treated pups were handled daily 
      but not intubated. On PD 45, subjects were tested on a visuospatial 
      discrimination task. Ethanol-exposed subjects who were not treated neonatally 
      with choline committed a significantly greater number of errors both during 
      acquisition and during delayed discrimination training compared to both PF and LC 
      controls. Neonatal choline treatment significantly improved performance on the 
      discrimination task in all groups; however, the beneficial effects of choline 
      were significantly larger in ethanol-exposed subjects. Indeed, the performance of 
      ethanol-exposed pups treated with neonatal choline did not differ from any of the 
      PF or LC groups on any measure. Thus, early postnatal choline supplementation 
      significantly attenuated the effects of prenatal alcohol on this learning task. 
      Importantly, these effects were not due to the acute effects of choline, but 
      rather to long-term changes in brain and behavioral development. These data 
      suggest that early dietary interventions may reduce the severity of fetal alcohol 
      effects.
FAU - Thomas, J D
AU  - Thomas JD
AD  - Center for Behavioral Teratology, San Diego State University, Suite 209, 6363 
      Alvarado Ct., San Diego, CA 92120, USA. thomas3@mail.sdsu.edu
FAU - La Fiette, M H
AU  - La Fiette MH
FAU - Quinn, V R
AU  - Quinn VR
FAU - Riley, E P
AU  - Riley EP
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PL  - United States
TA  - Neurotoxicol Teratol
JT  - Neurotoxicology and teratology
JID - 8709538
RN  - 0 (Central Nervous System Depressants)
RN  - 3K9958V90M (Ethanol)
RN  - N91BDP6H0X (Choline)
SB  - IM
MH  - Animals
MH  - Animals, Newborn
MH  - Behavior, Animal/drug effects
MH  - Body Weight/drug effects
MH  - Central Nervous System Depressants/*toxicity
MH  - Choline/*administration & dosage
MH  - Dietary Supplements
MH  - Discrimination Learning/*drug effects
MH  - Ethanol/*toxicity
MH  - Female
MH  - Male
MH  - Pregnancy
MH  - *Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects
MH  - Rats
EDAT- 2000/12/07 11:00
MHDA- 2001/02/28 10:01
CRDT- 2000/12/07 11:00
PHST- 2000/12/07 11:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2001/02/28 10:01 [medline]
PHST- 2000/12/07 11:00 [entrez]
AID - S0892-0362(00)00097-0 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/s0892-0362(00)00097-0 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Neurotoxicol Teratol. 2000 Sep-Oct;22(5):703-11. doi: 
      10.1016/s0892-0362(00)00097-0.