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Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Altered gene expression in neural crest cells exposed to ethanol in vitro
Brain Research Article in Press 22 August 2009

To characterize and compare ethanol-induced changes of gene expression in cells from the cranial (cNCC) and trunk (tNCC) portion of the neural crest cell (NCC) population of day-10 rat embryos.

Ethanol causes a shift towards apoptosis in both cNCC and tNCC, a shift, which is diminished by NAC treatment. Oxidative defense genes, and genes involved in neural crest cell development are affected differently in cNCC compared to tNCC upon ethanol exposure. Moreover, ethanol down regulates cNCC Hox genes, whereas tNCC Hox genes are up regulated.
These patterns of ethanol-altered gene expression may be of etiological importance for NCC-associated maldevelopment in ethanol-exposed pregnancy.




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