Metabolic Phenotype and Increased Adiposity in a Mouse Model of Chronic Gestational Alcohol Exposure

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) is the largest preventable cause of neurodevelopmental disability and recent studies suggest that prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) also increases obesity risk at adolescence. Children with FASD exhibit hyperphagia and have inappropriate dietary intake which may contribute to increased obesity risk. We developed a mouse model of gestational binge alcohol exposure (PAE) to delineate the contributions of metabolic dysregulation, eating behavior and diet response in offspring to increased obesity risk. Pregnant C57Bl/6J females were gavaged with 3 g/kg alcohol (EtOH) daily from gestational day (GD) 12.5 to 17.5 in two half doses, two hours apart. Isocaloric maltodextrin (MD) and medium chain triglycerides (MCT) were included as nutritional controls. A sham (H2O) treatment was used to control for gavage stress. At 17 weeks, sex matched pairs from each litter were investigated for the following endpoints: obesity via dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA), carbohydrate meta...