New Mexico Alcohol Research Center


1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131

P50 Pilot Project 8C

(PI: Milligan) will examine whether a prenatal ethanol-induced elevation in allodynia (i.e., pain due to a stimulus which does not normally provoke pain) involves increased spinal cord expression of glial-reactivity, cytokine markers, and leukocyte enrichment into CNS regions critical for pain signaling, as monitored by whole animal SPECT/CT imaging.  These proposed studies are inspired by preliminary data which show that after induction of a localized peripheral neuropathy, greater allodynia is observed in rodents with prenatal ethanol exposure compared to non-exposed controls.  A separate pilot, using SPECT/CT to image live healthy intact rats, has revealed discrete leukocyte enrichment occurring in the lumbar spinal cord region that is significantly greater in neuropathic subjects compared to non-neuropathic controls.  While most of the center’s focus to date has been on the impact of prenatal ethanol exposure on different forms of learning, this study will be the center’s first examination of other behavioral alterations that are emerging in the field and being recognized as so-called “secondary medical disabilities” that arise as a consequence of prenatal ethanol exposure.