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Although the devastating potential effects of alcohol on the developing fetal brain are well-known, mechanisms of fetal alcohol effects and syndromes remain unclear. To elucidate the mechanisms, this animal study examined the neuroanatomic and time course changes in rat brains after controlled ethanol consumption. Researchers compared the effects of ethanol and saline, as well as the effects of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist MK-801 and GABAergic compounds (phenobarbital, diazepam, and clonazepam) among groups of 6 rats each.
Exposure to ethanol occurred at various times during synaptogenesis of the rat brain, including pre- and postnatal periods. Compared with saline-exposed rats, ethanol-exposed rats had significant decreases in…