Abstract 405: Antioxidant Treatment Prevents Profibrotic Changes And Cardiac Dysfunction In Prenatal Alcohol Exposure

Prenatal ethanol exposure is often associated with cardiac defects. Our studies focus on the role of cardiac fibroblasts in the developing heart, and how they are affected by prenatal ethanol exposure. There have been numerous studies demonstrating the protective effects of antioxidant treatment against alcohol-induced injury during cardiac development. Thus, we hypothesize that in utero ethanol (EtOH) exposure creates oxidative stress and activates neonatal cardiac fibroblasts, leading to a profibrotic phenotype and cardiac dysfunction. Further, we hypothesize that these effects are prevented by antioxidant treatment. We performed in utero EtOH administration to C57/BL6 mice on gestation days 6.75 and 7.5. Dams were intraperitoneally injected with 2.9 g EtOH/kg body weight to produce a blood EtOH content of ~0.26 g/dL each time. Controls were injected with vehicle saline. Randomly selected dams in both groups were treated with 100 gram/kg body weight of the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC) immediately ...