Effect of alcohol exposure on fetal brain development
Alcohol consumption during pregnancy can be severely damage to the brain development in fetuses. This study
investigates the effects of maternal ethanol consumption on brain development in mice embryos. Pregnant mice at
gestational day 12.5 were intragastrically gavaged with ethanol (3g/Kg bwt) twice daily for three consecutive days.
On gestational day 14.5, fetuses were collected and fixed in 4% paraformaldehyde and imaged using a swept-source
optical coherence tomography (SSOCT) system. 3D images of the mice embryo brain were obtained and the
volumes of the left and right ventricles of the brain were measured. The average volumes of the left and the right
volumes of 5 embryos each alcohol-exposed and control embryos were measured to be 0.35 and 0.15 mm 3 ,
respectively. The results suggest that the left and right ventricle volumes of brain are much larger in the alcohol-exposed
embryos as compared to control embryos indicating alcohol-induced developmental delay.