Pfefferbaum, A., Zahr, N. M., Mayer, D., Vinco, S., Orduna, J., Rohlfing, T., & Sullivan, E. V. (2008, June). Ventricular expansion after alcohol exposure by vapor chamber in Wistar rats. In ALCOHOLISM-CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH (Vol. 32, No. 6, pp. 326A-326A). 9600 GARSINGTON RD, OXFORD OX4 2DQ, OXON, ENGLAND: BLACKWELL PUBLISHING.
Abstract
Background
Structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) reveals widespread brain damage manifest as tissue shrinkage and complementary ventriculomegaly in human alcoholism. For an animal model to parallel the human condition, high alcohol exposure should produce similar radiologically detectable neuropathology. Our previous structural MRI study demonstrated only modest brain dysmorphology of the alcohol-preferring (P) rat with average blood alcohol levels (BALs) of 125 mg/dl achieved with voluntary consumption. Here, we tested the hypothesis that wild-type Wistar rats, exposed to vaporized alcohol ensuring higher BALs than typically achieved with voluntary consumption in rodents, would model MRI findings in the brains of humans with chronic alcoholism.
Methods
The longitudinal effects of vaporized alcohol exposure on the brains of 10 wild-type Wistar rats compared with 10 sibling controls were investigated with structural MRI, conducted before (MRI 1) and after (MRI 2) 16 of alcohol exposure and after an additional 8 weeks at a higher concentration of alcohol (MRI 3).[…]
