Drinking alcohol in moderation is often considered a health-conscious behavior;associated with improved cardiovascular and brain health. However;“moderate” amounts of alcohol include drinking 3-4 alcohol beverages in a day;which is closer to binge drinking and may do more harm than good.
Here we examined how daily drinking of moderate-high alcohol alters the production of new neurons in the adulthippocampus.
Male and female adult Sprague-Dawley rats were provided free access to a liquid replacement diet that was supplemented with either 4% ethanol or Maltodextrin for a period of two weeks. Proliferating cells were labeled with 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine (BrdU) and the number of BrdU-positive cells in the hippocampus was assessed after the final day of drinking. A subset of rats was also exposed to a motor skill or associative learning task to examine the functional effects of alcoholconsumption.
The drinking regime resulted in an average blood alcohol concentration of approximately 0.08%;which is comparable to the human legal driving limit in many countries. This level of intoxication did not impair motor skill learning or function in either sex;nor did the alcoholconsumption disrupt associative learning two days after drinking.
Male and female adult Sprague-Dawley rats were provided free access to a liquid replacement diet that was supplemented with either 4% ethanol or Maltodextrin for a period of two weeks. Proliferating cells were labeled with 5-bromo-2-deoxyuridine (BrdU) and the number of BrdU-positive cells in the hippocampus was assessed after the final day of drinking. A subset of rats was also exposed to a motor skill or associative learning task to examine the functional effects of alcoholconsumption.
The drinking regime resulted in an average blood alcohol concentration of approximately 0.08%;which is comparable to the human legal driving limit in many countries. This level of intoxication did not impair motor skill learning or function in either sex;nor did the alcoholconsumption disrupt associative learning two days after drinking.
Therefore; moderate alcohol consumption did not disrupt basic sensory;motor or learning processes. However;the number of cells produced in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus was reduced by nearly 40%.
Thus; even moderate consumption of alcohol for a relatively short period of time can have profound effects on structural plasticity in the adult brain.
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