Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

While it is widely known that alcohol consumption during pregnancy is harmful to the unborn child, the nature of the damage and how it occurs is not known, precluding the identification of high-risk children and potential therapeutic strategies for prevention. Alcohol causes visible physical deformities, but it can also damage the brain, which can affect behaviour including learning, memory and intelligence as the child grows up. These behavioural changes can reduce the quality of the life for these children and their families, with associated indirect costs to society. Among several possible causes, we have examined the possibility that alcohol creates 'free radicals', or highly reactive forms of oxygen, which damage DNA in the developing child causing errors in how their cells and organs are formed and function. To study this, we used mice that were genetically altered so they are unable to fix damaged DNA caused by free radicals, and gave them alcohol during pregnancy. After the mice gave birth, their exposed offspring were tested during adolescence for their ability to perform in a test of learning and memory. Among offspring exposed to alcohol, those that could not fix damaged DNA exhibited more brain damage caused by free radicals, and a decreased ability to learn for months after birth, compared to offspring from the same litter that had normal DNA repair and exhibited normal learning. Moreover, these learning deficits in the DNA repair-deficient offspring occurred at a low dose of alcohol that did not cause physical deformities. When a separate group of pregnant mice were pretreated with an agent that neutralizes or "traps" free radicals, their offspring were protected from both brain damage and the resulting behavioural problems. These results show that alcohol consumption during pregnancy can cause the formation of free radicals, which damage the brain of the developing child, resulting in learning and memory problems later in life.