Efeitos do etanol e/ou metilmercúrio no desenvolvimento do sistema nervoso central : alterações morfológicas e comportamentais em ratos adultos

AUTOR(ES)

Cristiane do Socorro Ferraz Maia

DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2009

RESUMO

Studies involving alcohol and its interactions with other neurotoxicants represent the focus of several researches due to the fact that the use of alcohol can sometimes lead to serious health problems. Fetal exposure to alcohol and mercury has a high incidence in some regions of Brazil, especially in mining areas habited by alcoholics pregnant women. This study was performed in order to examine behavioral and morphological alterations in the brain of adult rats, exposed to ethanol (EtOH) and methylmercury (MeHg) during developing central nervous system (CNS). Pregnant rats received, by gavage, tap water or EtOH during pregnancy and breast-feeding. On the 15th day of pregnancy, half of each group received 8 mg/kg of MeHg. The groups were as follows: Control, EtOH, MeHg and EtOH+MeHg. The behavioral tests consisted of open field, elevated T-maze (ETM) and step-down inhibitory avoidance. Morphological analyses were used in order to evaluate the nitrergic activity in the hippocampus, striatum and cerebellum. The results demonstrated that the exposure to EtOH and/or MeHg may be a risk for deficits associated with locomotion and neurocognitive functions and also alters nitrergic activity in the adult rat brain in different ways, depending on the CNS region and layer. These alterations might be related to different local metabolic properties. EtOH administration during fetal life seems to induce an upregulation of NO synthetic enzymes, whereas MeHg seem to downregulate this induction, altering the homeostasis in adulthood. The EtOH+MeHg group induced a reduction of nitrergic activity only in the molecular layer of the cerebellum, compared to control groups. Taken together, the results suggest possible prenatal interactions between EtOH and MeHg with regional consequences in the adult brain that may be dependent of intra- and interregional metabolic differences that deserve further investigation.

ASSUNTO(S)

locomotion memory methylmercury síndrome alcoólico-fetal metilmercúrio memória atividade nitrérgica fetal alcohol syndrome ciencias da saude nitrergic activity locomoção

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