Maternal separation on the choroid plexus of UChA and UChB rats

Abstract

Alcoholism is one of the oldest and most widespread drug addictions described in the literature and one of the biggest concerns in the health area. There is a growing number of investigations into the medical, social, and economic problems triggered by the abusive consumption of ethanol-based distillates or fermented products that can affect tissues or organs in different ways. Intrinsic or extrinsic situations that threaten organic homeostasis trigger a series of adaptive responses that constitute the stress systems, which consist of different physical and mental reactions that oppose the stressful stimulus, aiming to restore the lost balance. The UChA and UChB rat varieties constitute rare models for studies related to the genetic, biochemical, physiological, nutritional and pharmacological factors of the effects of alcohol, as well as appetite and tolerance, important factors related to human alcoholism. The present work arose from the interest in investigating the effects of stress on these animals, since several aspects of alcoholism may be the result of stress experienced early in life, being potentiated or not in the adult individual. Thus, the research proposes to investigate and evaluate whether maternal neonatal separation, applied to male offspring of UChA and UChB rats, potentiates the toxic effects of chronic alcohol intake on choroid plexus cells. Maternal separation (MS) change the ethanol consumption and not altered IGF-I expressions. There was a negative association between ethanol consumption and MS in body mass gain and other correlations with feed, water consumptions and hormones dosages. Maternal separation potentiated epithelial atrophy of the choroid plexus in UChA and UChB animals.