Three months of chronic ethanol administration and the behavioral outcome of rats after lateral fluid percussion brain injury

This study examined the effects of 3 months of chronic ethanol administrati on (CEAn) on the behavioral outcome in rats after lateral fluid percussion (FP) brain injury. Rats were given either an ethanol liquid diet (ethanol d iet groups) or a pair-fed isocaloric sucrose control diet (control diet gro ups) for 3 months. Then, rats from both diet groups were subjected to eithe r lateral FP brain injury of moderate severity (1.8 atm) or to sham operati on. Postinjury behavioral measurements revealed that brain injury caused si gnificant spatial learning disability in both diet groups. There were no si gnificant differences in spatial learning ability in the sham or brain-inju red animals between the control and ethanol diets. However, a trend towards cognitive impairment in the sham animals and a trend towards reduced defic its in the brain-injured animals were observed in the ethanol diet group. H istologic analysis of injured animals from both diet groups revealed simila r extents of ipsilateral cortical and hippocampal CA3 damage. These results , in general, suggest that 3 months of CEAn does not significantly alter th e behavioral and morphologic outcome of experimental brain injury.