Structural changes in the hippocampal formation after long-term alcohol consumption and withdrawal in the rat

• Published in: Addiction (Abingdon, England) Vol. 88; no. 2; pp. 237 - 247
• Main Authors: PAULA-BARBOSA, M. M., BRANDÃO, F., MADEIRA, M. D., CADETE-LEITE, A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.02.1993; Blackwell; Carfax
• Subjects: Alcohol Drinking - pathology; Alcoholism and acute alcohol poisoning; Animals; Biological and medical sciences; Dendrites - drug effects; Ethanol - adverse effects; Hippocampus - pathology; Male; Medical sciences; Rats; Rats, Sprague-Dawley; Structural change; Substance Withdrawal Syndrome - pathology; Synapses - drug effects; Toxicology; Withdrawal; Consumption; Poison withdrawal; Ethanol; Rat; Rodentia; Central nervous system; Long term; Vertebrata; Dentate gyrus; Peptidergic neuron; Mammalia; Animal; Plasticity; Somatostatin; Morphometry; Hippocampus; Brain (vertebrata)
• ISSN: 0965-2140; 1360-0443
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1360-0443.1993.tb00807.x

The effects of long‐term alcohol consumption and withdrawal upon the structure of the rat hippocampal formation were studied by applying morphometric methods to material processed for light and electron microscopy. The somatostatinergic neurons of the hilus zvere aha studied. Groups of 6 rats were treated as follows: (a) given alcohol for 6, 12 and 18 months; (b) paired controls; and (c) rats switched to a normal diet in the 6 months after 6 and 12 month!, of alcohol intake. A progressive loss of hippocampal neurons after chronic alcohol consumption was found. The loss was aggravated during withdrawal from alcohol, with the exception of the hilar cells. The dendrites of granule cells front the alcohol‐treated rats displayed signs of regrowing, but they did not do so in rats withdrawn from alcohol. The synapses between mossy fibre terminals and CA3 dendrites appear to be rather resistant to alcohol insult, and evidence of morphological plasticity mas found in withdrawn rats. If an homology can be established between humans and rodents then the changes observed in alcohol‐fed rats can be regarded as underpinning some of the functional and behavioural alterations depicted under these circumstances, The peculiar changes found in some nerve cell populations after withdrawal of alcohol could be related to the deficient or incomplete functional recovery often seen after abstinence from alcohol.