Dose-dependent decrease in glial fibrillary acidic protein-immunoreactivity in rat cerebellum after lifelong ethanol consumption

• Published in: Alcohol (Fayetteville, N.Y.) N.Y.), 2001-01, Vol.23 (1), p.1-8
• Main Authors: Rintala, Jyrki, Jaatinen, Pia, Kiianmaa, Kalervo, Riikonen, Jarno, Kemppainen, Oili, Sarviharju, Maija, Hervonen, Antti
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; Age Factors; Aging; Alcohol; Alcohol Drinking - metabolism; Alcohol use; Alcoholism and acute alcohol poisoning; Alcohols; Animals; Astrocytes; Astrocytes - drug effects; Astrocytes - pathology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain; Brain research; Central Nervous System Depressants - pharmacology; Cerebellum; Cerebellum - drug effects; Cerebellum - metabolism; Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; Drinking water; Drug abuse; Ethanol; Ethanol - pharmacology; Female; Females; Gender differences; Gene expression; Glial fibrillary acidic protein; Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein - drug effects; Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein - metabolism; Image processing; Immunohistochemistry; Immunoreactivity; Intermediate filaments; Laboratories; Male; Males; Medical sciences; Proteins; Rats; Rodents; Substantia alba; Toxicology
• ISSN: 0741-8329; 1873-6823
• DOI: 10.1016/S0741-8329(00)00116-6

The effects of aging and lifelong ethanol consumption on astrocytic morphology and glial fibrillary acidic protein-immunoreactivity (GFAP-IR) in the cerebellar vermis obtained from ethanol-preferring Alko, Alcohol (AA) rats were analyzed by using computer-assisted image analysis. The ethanol-consuming animals (both male and female) were given ethanol (10%–12%, vol./vol.) as the only available fluid for 21 months (3–24 months), whereas the young (3 months) and the old (24 months) controls received water. In the male rats, but not in the female rats, an age-related decrease in GFAP-IR was found in folia II, VII, and X of the molecular layer, and in turn, an age-related increase was found in folium X of the granular layer, indicating opposite changes in GFAP-IR for male rats due to aging in adjacent brain regions. In the female rats, 21 months of daily average ethanol consumption of 6.6 g/kg resulted in decreased GFAP-IR in folium VII of the molecular layer, and the decrease in cerebellar GFAP-IR correlated with the average daily ethanol intake (r=−.886, P=.019) when folia II, IV, VII, and X were analyzed together. No effect of ethanol on GFAP-IR was detected in the granular layer or in the central white matter of the female rats. There was no change in GFAP-IR in any of the three cerebellar layers of the male rats with average daily ethanol consumption of 3.2 g/kg. These results indicate that the Bergmann glial fibers are the GFAP-expressing structures of the cerebellum most sensitive to moderate-to-heavy chronic ethanol exposure and that this effect is dose dependent.