Acute Effects of Ethanol and the First Suckling Episode in the Newborn Rat

Background: In humans, early postnatal experience with alcohol is far from rare and includes exposure to alcohol through breast milk or through the bottle to attain sedative effects (Croce, 1987). Exposure to alcohol though mother's milk alters the infant's suckling behavior. However, acut...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research clinical and experimental research, 2000-07, Vol.24 (7), p.996-1002
Main Authors: Cheslock, Sarah J., Varlinskaya, Elena I., Silveri, Marisa M., Petrov, Evgeniy S., Spear, Linda P., Spear, Norman E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acute Effects
Alcoholism and acute alcohol poisoning
Animals
Animals, Newborn
Animals, Suckling
Biological and medical sciences
Central Nervous System Depressants - pharmacology
Dose-Response Relationship, Drug
Embryology: invertebrates and vertebrates. Teratology
Ethanol
Ethanol - pharmacology
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Lactation - drug effects
Lactation - physiology
Male
Medical sciences
Models, Animal
Motor Activity - drug effects
Motor Activity - physiology
Neonatal Rat
Pregnancy
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Suckling
Surrogate Nipple
Teratology. Teratogens
Toxicology
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Summary:Background: In humans, early postnatal experience with alcohol is far from rare and includes exposure to alcohol through breast milk or through the bottle to attain sedative effects (Croce, 1987). Exposure to alcohol though mother's milk alters the infant's suckling behavior. However, acute effects of alcohol on suckling behavior using animal models remain to be investigated. Methods: The present study was designed to examine the effects of neonatal alcohol exposure on attachment to a surrogate nipple and ingestion of milk in rat pups, nafve both to suckling and to maternal care. Cesarean‐delivered rat pups were pre‐exposed to four dosages of ethanol (0, 1, 2, and 3 g/kg intragastrically) and tested 30 min after ethanol administration. Results: Suckling behavior was impaired only in pups exposed to a dosage of 3 g/kg of ethanol. Pups in this group demonstrated longer latency to attach followed by less efficient suckling–the pups maintained contact with the nipple but showed decreased ingestion of milk from it. Pups treated with 1 g/kg of ethanol showed the greatest suckling efficiency, ingesting far more milk per minute attached to the surrogate nipple than pups in all other groups. At the same time, nonevoked motor activity was significantly suppressed by all three dosages of ethanol. Blood alcohol levels showed a linear relationship with dose at 30 min postintubation. Conclusions: These findings suggest a dissociation between acute ethanol effects on suckling and overall motor activity, with suckling apparently less sensitive to suppressive and more sensitive to activating effects of ethanol.
ISSN:0145-6008
1530-0277
DOI:10.1111/j.1530-0277.2000.tb04642.x