In Utero Ethanol Exposure Increases Proenkephalin, a Precursor of a Neuropeptide That Is Inhibitory to Neuronal Growth

Abstract

Although we were not able to detect a change in the concentration of the PE peptide in the nucleus accumbens or striatum, we cannot rule out the possibility that the increase in PE mRNA was reflective of a functional abnormality.

Maternal ethanol consumption before paternal fertilization: Stimulation of hypocretin neurogenesis and ethanol intake in zebrafish offspring

“…Our observation here of preconception maternal ethanol consumption, showing no change in total number of differentiated neurons in HuC:GFP offspring along with an increase in hcrt neurogenesis, suggests that ethanol exposure before conception may affect specific, but not all, neuronal subpopulations during early development. This idea is supported by evidence in zebrafish, showing that embryonic ethanol exposure disturbs facial motor neuron migration while having little to no effect on olig2 and ptf1a neurons in the cerebellum and spinal cord (Buckley et al, 2019), and by reports in rats, showing prenatal ethanol to stimulate hypothalamic expression and levels of enkephalin (Druse et al, 1999;Lugo et al, 2006) and hcrt (Chang et al, 2012) while having little effect on expression of the orexigenic peptide, neuropeptide Y (Dembele et al, 2006). Thus, the differential effects of ethanol on specific neuronal systems, increasing hcrt neurogenesis but not total neuronal differentiation, may be a factor in determining the particular behavioral effects produced by preconception as well as postconception ethanol exposure.…”