Exposure to alcohol in utero can have enduring health effects across the lifespan, including increased risks related to strokes in midlife, according to new research.
The preclinical study found that fetal alcohol exposure significantly influences how well someone in middle age will recover after a stroke. Individuals prenatally exposed to alcohol had more inflammatory markers and significantly worse health outcomes immediately following a stroke.
The findings, published in Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research, highlight the importance of considering adverse prenatal and early-life experiences when assessing health risks in midlife individuals.
A large body of research has shown that prenatal alcohol exposure is harmful to child and adolescent development and has lifelong health effects, including dysfunction in various organs and systems, including the kidneys and pancreas, and endocrine and immune systems.
The endocrine and immune systems undergo significant changes during middle age, increasing the risk of conditions affecting blood flow to the brain. The current study examined the effects of prenatal exposure to alcohol on the cardiovascular and cerebrovascular systems later in life, specifically, after an ischemic stroke in middle age, and provides new evidence that prenatal alcohol exposure may significantly exacerbate acute stroke outcomes in this period of life.
Scientists exposed pregnant rats to alcohol vapor or ambient air to mimic prenatal alcohol exposure. Later, when the offspring reached middle-age, the middle cerebral artery was blocked to induce ischemic strokes. The study evaluated immediate and long-term performance on a comprehensive set of neurological and sensorimotor tasks, and analyzed the blood and brain samples of the rats after stroke.
Analysis of blood samples showed rats prenatally exposed to alcohol had significantly greater brain damage compared to the control group. Prenatal alcohol exposure altered the number of different T-cells and neutrophils, which are cells that fight infection, and elevated the number of cytokine proteins in the brain. Together, these alterations signify a dysregulated inflammatory response both in the brain and in the blood, a weakened immune response, and put the individual at increased risk for infection and future strokes, and can impede recovery from stroke.
They found no differences in short-term survival rates between male and female rats, but female offspring prenatally exposed to alcohol had significantly worse neurological scores and more severe motor disability after the stroke than female offspring in the control group—the offspring not exposed to alcohol.
Surprisingly, despite the motor disability and dysregulated immune response seen in the acute phase, long-term cognitive function after a stroke was generally not worse in middle-aged subjects prenatally exposed to alcohol. In previous work from this research group, long-term cognitive function was affected by strokes in adult subjects prenatally exposed to alcohol, indicating that advancing age may disguise the effects of prenatal alcohol. It should also be noted that other long-term consequences of stroke were not studied in this experiment, such as depression, epilepsy, addiction, and other neuropsychiatric issues, which may benefit from further exploration. Further exploration of the effect of stroke on these conditions, as well as other risk factors, such as high blood pressure and metabolic disease, might provide a more complete picture of the role of prenatal alcohol exposure in long-term health effects following a stroke in midlife.
New research shows that exposure to alcohol before birth can lead to worse health outcomes after a stroke in middle age. Rats exposed to alcohol in the womb had more brain damage, higher inflammation, and poorer recovery. Female rats were especially affected. The study highlights the long-term impact of prenatal alcohol on brain and immune health.
(Newswise/MKJ)