Early ethanol intoxication alters enzymatic catalase activity and generates associative respiratory learning

VERÓNICA TRUJILLO; ANA FABIOLA MACCHIONE; PAULA ALEJANDRA ALBRECHT; MIRIAM BEATRIZ VIRGOLINI; JUAN CARLOS MOLINA

Córdoba

Congreso; XXXIII Congreso Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias; 2019

Sociedad Argentina de Neurociencia

Ethanol (EtOH) during early ontogeny severely affects brain development, learning, memory and breathing platicity. The catalase (CAT) system is the main metabolic pathway of EtOH oxidation to acetaldehyde in the brain; a metabolite that regulates different EtOH effects. We assessed whether EtOH experience may induce a differential activation of CAT while also evaluating respiratory plasticity. At postnatal days (PDs) 3, 5 & 7 Wistar rats were administrated via cisterna magna with EtOH (300mg%) or phosphate buffer (PB) in association (Paired) or not (Unpaired) with EtOH odor (conditioned stimulus, CS). At PD9 all pups were administrated with PB and breathing frequencies were recorded by plethysmography under normoxia and hypoxia conditions with or without the CS. Pups later consumed a 5.5% EtOH solution and their brains were removed for determination of CAT activity. The intake test also provides exposure to the odor of the drug. When exposed to the CS, Paired-pups failed to hyperventilate during hypoxia; an effect that suggests a negative outcome of prior learning processes. A significant increase of CAT activity was observed in pups pre-exposed to central EtOH and this activation was more pronounced in Paired-pups. It appears that EtOH-related associative learning interferes with the capability of the organism to cope with the respiratory demands of a hypoxic event. Prior EtOH exposure was also found to cause an enzymatic induction of CAT modulated by a new toxic episode