Prenatal alcohol-induced neuroapoptosis in rat brain: Protection by folic acid and betaine

İstanbul Bilim Üniversitesi, Sağlık Hizmetleri Meslek Yüksekokulu.Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) was first defined as mental retardation and growth deficits together with facial anomalies in newborns from chronic alcohol consumer mothers. All over the world, 1-2 out of every 1000 births are born with FAS. This ratio increases in populations with higher welfare. It is stated in many studies that prenatal alcohol consumption trigger apoptotic neurodegeneration

Boric acid supplementation can prevent oxidative damage caused by prenatal alcohol exposure in rat cerebral cortex

İstanbul Bilim Üniversitesi, Sağlık Hizmetleri Meslek Yüksekokulu.Depending on its acute or chronic usage and the dosage, alcohol has toxic effects on both mother and fetus when it is administered during pregnancy 1. Up till now, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) has been shown to include alcohol-related birth defects (ARBD), alcohol-related neurological disorders (ARND) and fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Children born with FAS have some difficulties in learning, memory, attention span, communication, hearing and vision. In order to overcome this problem, new strategies should be developed to prevent the teratogenic effects of alcohol on fetus. Oxidative stress has been shown to be related to many diseases including FAS 2. Oxidative stress leads to increasing lipid peroxidation and reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation that results in malfunction of the enzymes and membrane disruption 3. Antioxidants such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) have role in ROS detoxification