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Combined Effects of Alcohol and Stress during the Prenatal Period on Behavior in Adult Mice

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The aim of the present work was to study the effects of prenatal alcohol and stress on behavior in adult mice. Pregnant females received drinking solution containing 11% ethanol from days 1–21 of pregnancy and were subjected to stress (restriction for 2 h) on days 15–21. Their offspring (the Alcohol + Stress group) were tested at age three months using standard behavioral tests. Animals of the Alcohol + Stress group buried more marbles in the marble test, which models obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In the “social behavior” test, males of the Alcohol + Stress group licked and sniffed a juvenile male longer than did controls. Prenatal alcohol and stress had no significant influence on motor activity, anxiety, or investigative behavior in adult male mice. These results led to the conclusion that the combined actions of ethanol and stress during the prenatal period induced a predisposition to the development of OCD.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, 10 Lavrentiev Prospekt, 630090, Novosibirsk, Russia

    M. V. Morozova & N. K. Popova

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  1. M. V. Morozova
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  2. N. K. Popova
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Correspondence to M. V. Morozova.

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Translated from Rossiiskii Fiziologicheskii Zhurnal imeni I. M. Sechenova, Vol. 96, No. 11, pp. 1114–1121, November, 2010.

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Morozova, M.V., Popova, N.K. Combined Effects of Alcohol and Stress during the Prenatal Period on Behavior in Adult Mice. Neurosci Behav Physi 42, 317–321 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11055-012-9569-z

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