Acute prenatal alcohol exposure in rats: a behavioral study.

Pregnant rats were exposed to ethanol (two doses of 6.4 g/kg spaced by an interval of 6 hours, administered through an intragastric cannula) on the 8th day of gestation; control rats received two identical administrations of isocaloric sucrose. No significant differences were found in body weight and litter size of experimental and control pups 24 hours after delivery. When offsprings of ethanol treated mothers were tested in different postnatal behavioral tasks, significant developmental delays (suckling behavior and surface righting) were revealed during the lactation period, and an impaired passive avoidance performance was found at 40 days old compared to control offsprings.