Effects of prenatal alcohol exposure on 3-week-old Sprague-Dawley rat proximal tibia: an immunohistochemical and three-dimensional micro computed tomography X-Ray investigation
Date
2018
Authors
Perry, Vaughan
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Abstract
Intrauterine alcohol exposure is detrimental to fetal and postnatal development. Fetal
Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is the most severe effect of prenatal alcohol exposure. Of the
abnormalities that are characteristic of FAS, there are relatively few research studies on
the effects of gestational alcohol exposure on skeletal development. Hence, we aimed
at investigating the effects of prenatal alcohol consumption on the proximal growth
plate of the tibia in 3 week old rats.
Time mated pregnant Sprague Dawley dams were assigned into either the ethanol
(n=6), saline (n=6) control and untreated control groups (n=3). These rat dams were
treated with 0.015 ml/kg of 25.2% ethanol and 0.9% saline by oral gavage during the 19
days of gestation respectively. While the untreated control group remained untreated.
Two pups from each dame were selected from the three groups (n=60) and reared for
three weeks. These pups were then terminated by intraperitoneal anesthetic injection
of sodium pentobarbital. Following an abdominal incision the carcasses were fixed in
10% buffered formalin prior to the dissection of limbs.
Bilateral tibiae were harvested, soft tissue was cleaned off the tibiae and then these
fixed in 10% buffered formalin. The proximal end of the left tibiae, was subjected to
histological and immunohistochemical staining analysis. The, epiphyseal plate area,
proliferative zone and hypertrophic zone length, number of cells, area, and number of
proliferative cells where evaluated. For osteometric analysis bilateral tibiae were
subjected to three-dimensional micro-focus computed tomography investigations.
Description
A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Medicine, 2018