THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL EXPOSURE DURING INTRAUTERINE AND POSTNATAL PERIOD ON BONE MINERAL DENSITY AND BONE GROWTH AND BODY WEIGHT IN RATS' VIRGIN OFFSPRING

Aim: To investigate the effects of alcohol contained continuous modified liquid diet ingestion in rats' offspring on bone length, bone mineral density and body weights.
Methods: In Alcoholic group (n= 19), Wistar rats' offspring were provided 7.2% ethanol during intrauterine and postnatal breast feeding period (4 weeks). These rats were fed by modified liquid diet without ethanol till 12 weeks of age after weaning. Control group (pair-fed control rats, n= 9) was fed an isocaloric Modified Liquid Diet without ethanol throughout the experiment (12 weeks). In the all rats, bone mineral density (BMD) of the bilateral tibias were measured with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) and statistically compared.
Results: Compared with control group, there was a significant fall in tibia length (p=0.02); but the mild loss of body weight and bone mineral density was not found statistically significant (p>0.05).
Conclusion: Mild decrease in bone loss and body weights in offspring rats of provided alcohol during intrauterine life may be attributed the irregular feeding habits due to social factors in chronic alcohol consumption in human. Our findings related the significant short tibia length in chronic alcohol treated rats during pregnancy and lactation period were found correlated with the studies in human and animal models.