Changes in brain muscarinic and beta-adrenoreceptors of the offspring of ethanol-consuming mothers (experiments on rats).

The muscarinic cholinoreceptors in the cerebral cortex, striatum, hippocampus and hypothalamus were studied in a group of 12-week-old rats subjected to the effect of alcohol in utero and during the lactation period. The beta-adrenoreceptors in the same brain regions were investigated in another group of 8-week-old rats, likewise exposed perinatally to ethanol. The affinity of the muscarinic receptors was found to decrease in the hippocampus of the rats perinatally exposed to ethanol (increase of the Kd-value), and of the beta-adrenoreceptors to increase (decrease of the Kd-value) compared with the affinity of the respective receptors in the same brain structure of the control group of rats of the same age. The role of the changes induced by ethanol during the perinatal development in the muscarinic and beta-adrenoreceptors in the hippocampus, and especially the disturbed balance between these receptors, is examined as one of the factors responsible for the cognitive disturbances inherent to the rats with foetal alcohol syndrome.