(Press-News.org) Drinking excess alcohol during pregnancy can cause fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) due to the damaging effects of alcohol on a developing baby's brain. Despite its harmful effects, pregnant mothers continue to drink alcohol – up to 3 in every 1000 babies are born with FAS, which causes intellectual disabilities, behavioural problems, growth defects and abnormal facial features. How alcohol causes these effects is unclear, but researching the problem is difficult because of ethical barriers to studying human fetuses. Ulrike Heberlein and colleagues from the University of California San Francisco decided to study FAS using the fruit fly, a commonly used organism in biological research. Their results establish a new system for studying how alcohol causes harmful effects during development and open the door to further genetic and molecular studies of FAS. Heberlein and colleagues publish their results in Disease Models & Mechanisms on February 8, 2011 at http://dmm.biologists.org/.
When Heberlein and colleagues exposed fruit flies to alcohol during development, they found that the flies grew more slowly, had smaller brains, abnormal behaviour and were more sensitive to the effects of alcohol as adults. They also confirmed previous findings that the problems were caused in part because alcohol interferes with the function of insulin – a molecule essential for normal fetal development – in the developing brain. Heberlein commented, "It was pretty surprising that so many features of FAS were recapitulated in this model, including some of the molecular mechanisms."
The issue of how much alcohol, if any, a pregnant woman can safely drink – and during which trimester – has been hotly debated. As expected, Heberlein and colleagues found that greater amounts of alcohol had more severe effects on fly development and behaviour. More surprisingly, they found that exposure to alcohol later during a fly's development was more harmful than at early stages. Fruit flies are only distantly related to humans, so it is not yet possible to draw direct parallels between this study and the effects of alcohol on human pregnancy. Heberlein says, "We can't truly draw analogies before we know exactly which biological processes are being affected at these different stages of development. But it's very clear that exposure to alcohol early, during a rapid phase of growth, has different effects than later, when the brain is getting put together."
An important aspect of this new model system is that fruit flies provide a research advantage that is not available in humans – they can be used to very rapidly find the genes that might increase FAS risk. Heberlein and colleagues are undertaking this task now: their hope is that by studying FAS at the genetic level using fruit flies, they can generate results that will guide FAS research in humans and facilitate a more targeted approach to developing new therapies.
This study establishes the fruit fly as a model to study FAS that can be used to find genes and environmental factors that could influence FAS severity in humans. Combined with complementary approaches and follow-up studies in humans, the fruit fly will be a valuable tool for identifying drug candidates that could prevent or treat FAS in at-risk fetuses.
INFORMATION:
IF REPORTING ON THIS STORY, PLEASE MENTION Disease Models & Mechanisms AS THE SOURCE AND, IF REPORTING ONLINE, PLEASE CARRY A LINK TO: http://dmm.biologists.org/
REFERENCE: McClure, K. D., French, R. L. and Heberlein, U. (2011). A Drosophila model for fetal alcohol syndrome disorders: role for the insulin pathway. Dis. Model. Mech. doi:10.1242/dmm.006411
This article is posted on this site to give advance access to other authorised media who may wish to report on this story. Full attribution is required, and if reporting online a link to dmm.biologists.com is also required. The story posted here is COPYRIGHTED. Therefore advance permission is required before any and every reproduction of each article in full. PLEASE CONTACT permissions@biologists.com
THIS ARTICLE APPEARS IN Disease Models & Mechanisms ON: February 8, 2011. EMBARGOED UNTIL: February 8, 2011, 00:15 HRS EDT (05:15 HRS GMT).
END
WASHINGTON, DC, February 1, 2011 — Native residents of a neighborhood are more likely to move out when immigrants move in, according to new research by three American sociologists.
"Neighborhood Immigration and Native Out-Migration" appears in the February issue of the American Sociological Review. Study authors are Kyle Crowder of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Matthew Hall of the University of Illinois-Chicago and Stewart E. Tolnay of the University of Washington.
The authors note that for native whites the tendency to leave areas with large and ...
WASHINGTON, DC, February 2, 2011 — While experts often view aggressive behavior as a maladjusted reaction typical of social outcasts, a new study in the February issue of the American Sociological Review finds that it's actually popular adolescents—but not the most popular ones—who are particularly likely to torment their peers.
"Our findings underscore the argument that—for the most part—attaining and maintaining a high social status likely involves some level of antagonistic behavior," said Robert Faris, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of California-Davis. ...
CORVALLIS, Ore. – The air pollution control measures that were put in place in Beijing during the 2008 Olympic Games – if continued – would cut almost in half the lifetime risk of lung cancer for the area's residents from certain inhaled pollutants, a new study concludes.
This might translate to about 10,000 fewer lifetime cases of lung cancer in this large metropolitan area, scientists said, which is only one of several in China that have unhealthy levels of air pollution, largely from the burning of coal, biomass and automobile exhaust in a rapidly growing economy.
The ...
DAVIS -- While experts often view aggressive behavior as a maladjusted
reaction typical of social outcasts, a new University of California,
Davis, study finds that it's actually popular adolescents--but not
the most popular ones--who are particularly likely to torment their
peers.
"Our findings underscore the argument that--for the most
part--attaining and maintaining a high social status likely involves
some level of antagonistic behavior," said Robert Faris, an assistant
professor of sociology at UC Davis.
The study, co-authored by UC Davis sociology professor ...
A new website is launching, and it is dedicated to homes for sale in Farmington Hills MI. It highlights services for retail home buyers and real estate property investors, too. The new website is located at http://www.HomesForSaleInFarmingtonHillsMI.com.
Darrick Scruggs owns the company, and it is a division of My First Michigan Home, which is a piece of his vision of helping so many people find the missing piece of the real estate equation. Scruggs aims to make this division of the company the ongoing answer to people's questions.
He wants to find ways to grow his ...
Fashion Careers College will award scholarships to hopeful contestants of the hit reality television series, America's Next Top Model. The casting call event will be held on Friday, February 18, 2011 from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. at NTC Promenade in San Diego, California. FCC is a proud sponsor of the event.
Contestants vying for a spot on the sixteenth cycle of America's Next Top Model will also be given an opportunity to study for a career in fashion at Fashion Careers College. Scholarships will be awarded to all participants of the casting call who are accepted into ...
Charles Blumenkehl, CEO and managing partner of Blue Asset Management LLC announced his company has closed a multi-million dollar non-performing mortgage tranche collateralized residential assets located throughout New Jersey.
According to Charles Blumenkehl, "We are very pleased to have been able to help our sellers liquidate their non-peforming notes, and are excited about the opportunities we have identified within the group." Blumenkehl continued, "The areas these properties are in, and the price points we were able to achieve, will provide a benefit to our investors ...
For authors who wish to share their story to readers on a global scale, using the Internet as a marketing platform is one way of creating awareness and interest to readers all over the world. Online book marketing help authors reach out not just to the general reading public but also reach out to their target readers as well.
Xlibris Publishing, one of the leading indie book publishers today, understands the authors' needs and is proud to announce their February book marketing offer. They are offering four amazing web marketing tools at half the cost. As a limited special, ...
"The Way of the Natural Therapist" by Leisa Millar and James Ketub Golding (editors) consolidates inspirational, personal stories from over 20 experienced natural therapists to reveal how to achieve longevity and balance as a therapist. "As a growing number of people turn to natural therapies for their health and wellbeing, natural therapists face many challenges from working in a healthcare system where people want outcomes to be achieved quickly and with minimal personal effort," says Millar and Golding. "The key to wellness lies in ongoing self-responsibility and self-care, ...
Emergency Road Services Of Canada Inc. would like to announce that they have changed their company name to Emergency Road Services Corporation due to their expansion into the U.S.A.
The company has been providing their services in the U.S.A for the past year, but it became apparent that many customers still assumed that the company only provided their services in Canada because of their original name which included the word 'Canada' in it.
Although the company's original plan was to only supply their services in Canada, it was through customer demand that they decided ...
