Repeated binge drinking during adolescence can affect brain
functions in future generations, potentially putting offspring at risk for such
conditions as depression, anxiety, and metabolic disorders, a Loyola University
Chicago Stritch School of Medicine study has found.
“Adolescent binge drinking not only is dangerous to the
brain development of teenagers, but also may impact the brains of their
children,” said senior author Toni R. Pak, PhD, an associate professor in the
Department of Cell and Molecular Physiology of Loyola University Chicago
Stritch School of Medicine.
The study by Dr. Pak, first author AnnaDorothea Asimes, a
PhD student in Dr. Pak’s lab, and colleagues was presented Nov. 14, 2016 at
Neuroscience 2016, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.
The study, which was based on an animal model, found that
adolescent binge drinking altered the on-off switches of multiple genes in the
brains of offspring. When genes are turned on, they instruct cells to make
proteins, which ultimately control physical and behavioral traits. The study
found that in offspring, genes that normally are turned on were turned off, and
vice versa.
Teenage binge drinking is a major health concern in the
United States, with 21 percent of teenagers reporting they have done it during
the past 30 days. Among drinkers under age 21, more than 90 percent of the
alcohol is consumed during binge drinking episodes. Binge drinking is defined
as raising the blood alcohol concentration to 0.08 percent, the legal driving
limit, within two hours (generally about five drinks for a male and four drinks
for a female).
In the study, one group of adolescent male and female rats
was exposed to alcohol in amounts comparable to six binge drinking episodes.
The rats mated after becoming sober and the females remained sober during their
pregnancies. (Thus, any effects on offspring could not be attributed to fetal
alcohol syndrome.) The alcohol-exposed rats were compared to a control group of
rats that were not exposed to alcohol.
In the offspring of alcohol-exposed rats, researchers
examined genes in the hypothalamus, a region of the brain involved in many
functions, including reproduction, response to stress, sleep cycles and food
intake. Researchers looked for molecular changes to DNA that would reverse the
on-off switches in individual genes. They found 159 such changes in the
offspring of binge-drinking mothers, 93 gene changes in the offspring of
binge-drinking fathers and 244 gene changes in the offspring of mothers and
fathers who both were exposed to binge drinking.
The study is the first to show a molecular pathway that
teenage binge drinking by either parent can cause changes in the neurological
health of subsequent generations.
While findings from an animal model do not necessarily
translate to humans, there are significant similarities between the study’s
animal model and humans, including their metabolism of alcohol, the function of
the hypothalamus, and the pattern and amount of binge drinking, Pak said.
The study was supported by a grant from the National
Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. It is titled “Binge alcohol
consumption during puberty causes altered DNA methylation in the brain of
alcohol-naive offspring.”
Courtesy of: https://www.mdlinx.com/neurology/medical-news-article/2016/11/22/adolescent-binge-drinking-brain-functions-offspring/6952599/?category=latest&page_id=7
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