PhD, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand / While ethanol is recognised beyond doubt as a teratogen to the unborn fetus, research nevertheless continues in order to understand its mode of action and its effects at the cellular level. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of an acute dose of ethanol on cranial morphology and morphometry in mouse fetuses, as well as on the morphology, migration and the expression of cell migration related genes in cultured chick cranial neural crest cells (cNCCs). Thirteen pregnant C57/BL mice were orally administered with 0.03ml/g of 25% (v/v) ethanol daily on gestational days (GD) 6, 7 and 8. Ten control animals received an identical dose of saline. On GD 18, all mice dams were killed and their fetuses were removed. Fetal morphological observations and crown-rump lengths were evaluated as were mean litter size, survival rate, birth weight and cranial dimensions. Cranial neural crest cells (cNCCs) were cultured from Potchefstroom koek koek stages 8-10 (HH) chick embryo neural tubes either in culture medium (DMEM) to which 0.2%, 0.3% and 0.4% ethanol (v/v) respectively, was added (treated) or in DMEM only (controls). Whole-mount HNK-1 immunocytochemistry was performed on treated and control chick embryos, as was an assay for caspase-dependent apoptosis. Photographs were taken of the cultures and the distance which the neural crest cells migrated from the neural tube at 24 and 48 hrs post-culture was measured. 24-hr time-lapse video microscopy recordings were also made to analyse the migration of the neural crest cells. Rhodamine-phalloidin immunocytochemistry for the actin cytoskeleton and scanning electron microscopy of surface ultrastructure were performed on migrating treated and non-treated cNCCs, as were proliferation assays and quantitative PCR of cNCCs‟ β-actin, Rac 1, Rho B and slug genes. There was a statistically significant increase in fetal reabsorption as well as a significantly reduced fetal survival rate observed in newborn mice fetuses that had been exposed to ethanol in utero compared to control fetuses. Ethanol-exposed mice showed a number of abnormalities, which were not significantly increased over vi controls (p>0.5). Birth weight, crown-rump length and mandibular length were also not significantly different in treated fetuses compared to controls (p>0.5). Treated (0.3%) chick cNCCs migrated over a significantly increased distance at both 24hrs and 48hrs compared to controls (p<0.05) in the axes of migration that were studied. The migratory distances of cNCCs derived from embryonic stage 9 (HH) were markedly affected by treatment with alcohol. The actin cytoskeleton of treated cNCCs showed disorganisation and loss of focal adhesion contacts while Rac 1, Rho B and slug genes were either up-regulated or down-regulated depending on the ethanol dose and duration of treatment. Ethanol promotes significant proliferation in cNCCs and may affect their migration by altering the expression of migration-linked genes and the arrangement of the actin cytoskeleton.

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