EFFECTS OF NERVE GROWTH-FACTOR ON SPLENIC NOREPINEPHRINE AND PINEAL N-ACETYL-TRANSFERASE IN NEONATE RATS EXPOSED TO ALCOHOL IN-UTERO - NEUROIMMUNE CORRELATES

Prenatal alcohol exposure (FAE) has been associated with multiple anom alies, including a selective developmental delay of sympathetic innerv ation in lymphoid organs. Sympathetic neurons require nerve growth fac tor (NGF) for their development and maintenance, and recent evidence h as suggested that alcohol impairs the synthesis and/or biological acti vity of NGF in selected central and peripheral neurons. Thus, the pres ent study examined the hypothesis that NGF administration to FAE rats during early postnatal development would reverse some of the periphera l sympathetic deficits. Neonate rats, FAE and the corresponding contro l cohorts, received daily treatments of NGF or cytochrome C (0.3 mg/kg ; s.c.) for various time intervals, and were killed 24hr or 10 days af ter the last treatment. The measured parameters included norepinephrin e (NE) concentrations in the spleen and heart, which receive noradrene rgic innervation from the coeliac ganglion and the superior cervical g anglion (SCG), respectively. In addition, we measured the activity of pineal N-acetyltransferase (NAT), the rate-limiting enzyme of melatoni n biosynthesis, which depends on sympathetic innervation from the SCG. The data show that chronic, but not acute, NGF treatments reversed th e FAE-related deficits in splenic NE concentrations as well as in pine al NAT activity in a time- and age-dependent manner. Sympathetic neuro ns play an important role in immune modulation. Thus, the altered sple nic NE levels and pineal NAT activity may play a role in immune defici ts associated with exposure to alcohol in utero. Copyright (C) 1996 IS DN.