Alcohol consumption during gestation reduces the histamine and triiodothyronine content of rat immune cells

Abstract.

Objective: Different factors acting during pregnancy can cause non-morphological alterations of cells which are manifested later, in adulthood. We studied the effect of maternal alcohol consumption for one day in early pregnancy on the hormone content of immune cells in the adult rat.

Methods: Lactating dams were given 15% ethanol in the drinking water for 24 h on the 3rd day post partum, exposing their pups to ethanol in the breast milk. Some of the same dams had been successfully mated on the day of delivery, so that they were also 3 days pregnant on the treatment day, exposing embryos to alcohol on the third day of pregnancy. In 4 month old pups histamine and triiodothyronine (T₃) content of citrate elicited peritoneal immune cells (lymphocytes, monocyte-macrophage-granulocyte group, mast cells) as well as thymic cells were determined by flow cytometry and confocal microscopy using specific antibodies.

Results: Alcohol treatment during pregnancy decreased highly significantly the content of both hormones in peritoneal cells of the 4 month old adult animals while it was ineffective by breast feeding after birth. Thymic cells did not show any changes.

Conclusion: Since the immune system had not developed at the time of treatment (3rd day of pregnancy), stem cells were presumably imprinted. Our results indicate the deleterious effects of early maternal alcohol consumption on the hormone content of the immune system.