Neuroanatomical effects of chronic ethanol consumption on dorsomedial and anterior thalamic nuclei and on substantia innominata in mice

Midline Thalamic Damage Associated with Alcohol-Use Disorders: Disruption of Distinct Thalamocortical Pathways and Function

The thalamus, a significant part of the diencephalon, is a symmetrical and bilateral central brain structure. The thalamus is subdivided into three major groups of nuclei based on their function: sensorimotor nuclei (or principal/relay nuclei), limbic nuclei and nuclei bridging these two domains. Anatomically, nuclei within the thalamus are described by their location, such as anterior, medial, lateral, ventral, and posterior. In this review, we summarize the role of medial and midline thalamus in cognition, ranging from learning and memory to flexible adaptation. We focus on the discoveries in animal models of alcohol-related brain damage, which identify the loss of neurons in the medial and midline thalamus as drivers of cognitive dysfunction associated with alcohol use disorders. Models of developmental ethanol exposure and models of adult alcohol-related brain damage and are compared and contrasted, and it was revealed that there are similar (anterior thalamus) and different (intralaminar [adult exposure] versus ventral midline [developmental exposure]) thalamic pathology, as well as disruptions of thalamo-hippocampal and thalamo-cortical circuits. The final part of the review summarizes approaches to recover alcohol-related brain damage and cognitive and behavioral outcomes. These approaches include pharmacological, nutritional and behavioral interventions that demonstrated the potential to mitigate alcohol-related damage. In summary, the medial/midline thalamus is a significant contributor to cognition function, which is also sensitive to alcohol-related brain damage across the life span, and plays a role in alcohol-related cognitive dysfunction.

Aging with alcohol-related brain damage: Critical brain circuits associated with cognitive dysfunction

Alcoholism is associated with brain damage and impaired cognitive functioning. The relative contributions of different etiological factors, such as alcohol, thiamine deficiency and age vulnerability, to the development of alcohol-related neuropathology and cognitive impairment are still poorly understood. One reason for this quandary is that both alcohol toxicity and thiamine deficiency produce brain damage and cognitive problems that can be modulated by age at exposure, aging following alcohol toxicity or thiamine deficiency, and aging during chronic alcohol exposure. Pre-clinical models of alcohol-related brain damage (ARBD) have elucidated some of the contributions of ethanol toxicity and thiamine deficiency to neuroinflammation, neuronal loss and functional deficits. However, the critical variable of age at the time of exposure or long-term aging with ARBD has been relatively ignored. Acute thiamine deficiency created a massive increase in neuroimmune genes and proteins within the thalamus and significant increases within the hippocampus and frontal cortex. Chronic ethanol treatment throughout adulthood produced very minor fluctuations in neuroimmune genes, regardless of brain region. Intermittent "binge-type" ethanol during the adolescent period established an intermediate neuroinflammatory response in the hippocampus and frontal cortex, that can persist into adulthood. Chronic excessive drinking throughout adulthood, adolescent intermittent ethanol exposure, and thiamine deficiency all led to a loss of the cholinergic neuronal phenotype within the basal forebrain, reduced hippocampal neurogenesis, and alterations in the frontal cortex. Only thiamine deficiency results in gross pathological lesions of the thalamus. The behavioral impairment following these types of treatments is hierarchical: Thiamine deficiency produces the greatest impairment of hippocampal- and prefrontal-dependent behaviors, chronic ethanol drinking ensues mild impairments on both types of tasks and adolescent intermittent ethanol exposure leads to impairments on frontocortical tasks, with sparing on most hippocampal-dependent tasks. However, our preliminary data suggest that as rodents age following adolescent intermittent ethanol exposure, hippocampal functional deficits began to emerge. A necessary requirement for the advancement of understanding the neural consequences of alcoholism is a more comprehensive assessment and understanding of how excessive alcohol drinking at different development periods (adolescence, early adulthood, middle-aged and aged) influences the trajectory of the aging process, including pathological aging and disease.

Plasmin-mediated degradation of laminin gamma-1 is critical for ethanol-induced neurodegeneration

BACKGROUND

Alcoholism may result in severe neurological deficits and cognitive impairments. Many of the central effects of ethanol (EtOH) can be explained by upregulation of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) and downregulation of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) A receptors (GABAA) in response to long-term EtOH consumption. Abrupt ethanol withdrawal (EW) may result in neuronal hyperexcitability leading to hallucinations, seizures, neurodegeneration, and sometimes death.

METHODS

Using a multidisciplinary approach in wild-type and genetically modified mice, we examined the contribution of the tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), plasminogen, and laminin to EW-induced cell death.

RESULTS

Here we show that EW-induced neurodegeneration is mediated by the tPA/plasmin system. During EW, tPA is upregulated in the hippocampus and converts plasminogen to plasmin, which in turn degrades an extracellular matrix component laminin, leading to caspase-3-dependent cell death. Consequently, mice in which the tPA or plasminogen genes have been deleted do not show EW-induced laminin degradation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and neurodegeneration. Finally, we demonstrated that disruption of the hippocampal laminin gamma-1 renders the mice resistant to neurotoxic effects of EW.

CONCLUSIONS

Our data identify laminin gamma-1 as a novel target to combat neurodegeneration.

Chronic alcohol intoxication in rats leads to a strong but transient increase in NGF levels in distinct brain regions

Nerve growth factor (NGF), a member of the neurotrophin family, is an essential mediator of neuronal activity and synaptic plasticity of basal forebrain cholinergic neurons. In this study NGF-protein levels were determined in areas of the basal forebrain cholinergic system, its projection areas as well as the striatum and the cerebellum after long-term exposure (6 and 9 months) to ethanol and a phase of withdrawal in male Sprague-Dawley rats. 6-month alcohol treatment led to an increase of NGF to 650-850% of controls in the basal forebrain and the septum and to a 210-485% increase in the cholinergic projection areas (anterior cortex, hippocampus and olfactory bulb). After 9 months exposure to ethanol, a decrease of NGF by 16% in the frontal cortex was observed compared to controls. In the other brain regions no differences in NGF expression were detectable at this time-point. These results support the idea of an endogenous neuroprotective mechanism acting through a transient NGF induction followed by a decrease in NGF-levels during the course of further neuronal degeneration.

Chronic Ethanol Consumption Impairs Learning and Memory After Cessation of Ethanol

Acute consumption of ethanol results in reversible changes in learning and memory whereas chronic ethanol consumption of six or more months produces permanent deficits and neural damage in rodents. The goal of the current paper was determine whether shorter durations of chronic ethanol ingestion in mice would produce long-term deficits in learning and memory after the cessation of ethanol. We first examined the effects of four and eight weeks of 20% ethanol followed by a three week withdrawal period on learning and memory in mice. We determined that three weeks after eight, but not four, weeks of 20% ethanol consumption resulted in deficits in learning and long-term memory (seven days) in T-maze footshock avoidance and Greek Cross brightness discrimination, step-down passive avoidance and shuttlebox active avoidance. Short-term memory (1 hr) was not affected. The deficit was not related to changes in thiamine status, caloric intake, or nonmnemonic factors, such as, activity or footshock sensitivity. Lastly, we examined if the mice recovered after longer durations of withdrawal. After eight weeks of ethanol, we compared mice after three and 12 weeks of withdrawal. Mice that had been off ethanol for both three and 12 weeks were impaired in T-maze footshock avoidance compared to the controls. The current results indicate that a duration of ethanol consumption as short as eight weeks produces deficits in learning and memory that are present 12 weeks after withdrawal.

Reduction of regional brain glucose metabolism following different durations of chronic ethanol consumption in mice: a selective effect on diencephalic structures

The effects of chronic alcohol consumption on regional brain glucose metabolism were examined in Balb/c mice using the [14C]2-deoxyglucose autoradiographic technique. Animals were given a solution of 12% v/v ethanol as their only source of fluid for either 6, 12 or 18 months and compared to control groups receiving either an isocaloric solution or saccharose or tap water. Alterations of cerebral brain glucose metabolism were assessed in mice who were returned to a non-alcoholic diet and allowed to freely explore a T-maze. The results showed that chronic ethanol consumption induced reductions of regional metabolic activity which were functions both of the duration of alcohol treatment and of the structure studied. Whereas a six month period of alcoholization did not induce any significant effects on metabolic activity, 12 months of treatment were necessary to induce the first observable and significant reductions in [14C]2-deoxyglucose labelling. These effects were mainly limited to diencephalic structures such as the lateral mammillary nuclei and the anterodorsal thalamic nuclei. The cerebellum was also affected but to a lesser degree. After 18 months of alcoholization, a generalized spread of the metabolic reduction to the entire mammillary complex (lateral, medial and posterior nuclei) and to the thalamic nuclei was observed. This same duration of treatment was necessary to induce the first detectable decrease of metabolic activity in the hippocampus. In agreement with data from human neuropathology, these findings confirm the particular vulnerability of diencephalic structures to ethanol and suggest that damage limited to diencephalic regions rather than to hippocampal or cortical areas could be primarily responsible for the memory disorders observed in Korsakoff's syndrome.

Neurofibrillary tangles in chronic alcoholics

Magnocellular neurons in the cholinergic nucleus basalis appear to be vulnerable in a variety of pathological conditions, including chronic alcoholism. While neurofibrillary degeneration of these neurons has been noted in a number of disorders characterized by dementia, the mechanism of cell death in thiamine-deficient chronic alcoholics has not been identified. In the present post-mortem investigation, multiple brain regions of seven thiamine-deficient chronic alcoholics, three neurologically asymptomatic chronic alcoholics and seven non-alcoholic age matched controls were screened for neurofibrillary pathology using both tau-immunohistochemistry and a modified Bielschowsky silver stain. In chronic alcoholics with thiamine deficiency, neurofibrillary pathology was found in the nucleus basalis, but not any other brain region. Neurofibrillary tangles were not seen in age-matched controls and were infrequent in alcoholics without neuropathological signs of thiamine-deficiency. Neurofibrillary tangles were most numerous in those cases with cell loss in the nucleus basalis. These findings suggest that neurodegeneration of the nucleus basalis in chronic alcoholics proceeds through the formation of neurofibrillary tangles.

Degeneration of rat cholinergic basal forebrain neurons and reactive changes in nerve growth factor expression after chronic neurotoxic injury--II. Reactive expression of the nerve growth factor gene in astrocytes

Long-term consumption of ethanol both in human and rodent induces a process of chronic degeneration of cholinergic basal forebrain neurons which results in a cholinergic deafferentation of the cortical mantle. We have used quantitative northern blot analysis and in situ hybridization to demonstrate that these degenerative events in rat evoke an increase in the expression of the nerve growth factor gene in a number of brain areas, including the cholinergic basal forebrain nuclei and their cortical target regions. By combining non-radioactive in situ hybridization and immunohistochemistry activated astrocytes were identified as the major source of altered nerve growth factor gene expression. This increased nerve growth factor expression is paralleled by a dendritic remodelling of basal forebrain neurons, while the expression of choline acetyltransferase in surviving neurons remains the same. This failure of nerve growth factor to rescue the expression of choline acetyltransferase differs from the effects of exogenously administered nerve growth factor in acutely lesioned systems. The results indicate that under certain conditions of chronic neurodegeneration, the utilization of nerve growth factor might be impaired, which could be due to a defective nerve growth factor signalling mechanism.

Degeneration of rat cholinergic basal forebrain neurons and reactive changes in nerve growth factor expression after chronic neurotoxic injury--I. Degeneration and plastic response of basal forebrain neurons

The process of degeneration and dendritic reorganization of cholinergic neurons was investigated in the rat basal forebrain under the conditions of chronic neurotoxic injury induced by long-term consumption of ethanol. After 28 weeks of ethanol treatment (20% v/v), both the number of choline acetyltransferase-immunoreactive basal forebrain neurons and levels of biochemical measures of cholinergic neurons, such as the activity of choline acetyltransferase and the synthesis and content of acetylcholine, were decreased by about 60-80%. The number of cholinergic neurons showing a positive hybridization signal to choline acetyltransferase messenger RNA was decreased to a similar extent. On the contrary, the reduction in the number of neurons immunoreactive for nerve growth factor receptor p75, which in control brains is highly co-localized with the expression of choline acetyltransferase, was much less pronounced and reached only 20-30%. The loss of choline acetyltransferase expression was associated with a cellular hypertrophy. Neurons which had survived the neurotoxic damage, furthermore, showed a remodelling of the dendritic organization which was quantitatively investigated after Golgi impregnation. This process of dendritic reorganization was mainly characterized by an increase in number and length of terminal dendritic segments. The results indicate that under the conditions of the present paradigm of chronic neurodegeneration, a certain number of cholinergic neurons persists in a form where they lost their ability to express detectable amounts of choline acetyltransferase messenger RNA and the enzyme protein. Persisting neurons, however, show both expression of nerve growth factor receptor p75 and signs of perikaryal and dendritic growth. It might, therefore, be hypothesized that chronic degeneration of cholinergic basal forebrain neurons triggers reactive attempts of repair which involve the action of trophic factors such as nerve growth factor.

Impairment in memory function and neurodegenerative changes in the cholinergic basal forebrain system induced by chronic intake of ethanol

Chronic intake of ethanol both in human and rat results in a substantial impairment in memory function associated with a reduction in the number of cholinergic neurons in the basal forebrain which give rise to the cholinergic afferentation of the cortical mantle. Degenerative changes in the basal forebrain are paralleled by the concomitant reduction of presynaptic cholinergic markers (synthesis, content and release of acetylcholine) in the neocortex and hippocampus. Cognitive dysfunction in rat induced by ethanol treatment can be ameliorated by the pharmacological manipulation of central cholinergic neurotransmission by physostigmine, arecoline or nicotine. Furthermore, fetal brain transplants rich in cholinergic neurons are able to restore cognitive function which argues in favour of a cholinergic aspect of alcohol-induced behavioural dysfunction. The observation, that implantation of purified astrocytes results in a similar restoration of learning and memory abilities associated with a recovery of cholinergic function, further indicates that behavioural sequelae of alcohol intake can largely be ameliorated by a trophic stimulation directed towards the cholinergic basal forebrain system. Regarding the cholinergic basal forebrain system as a component of the ascending reticular activation system, the involvement of the cholinergic afferentation of the cortical mantle in the mediation of memory processes and their dysfunction under neurodegenerative conditions can be explained on the basis of the "Hippocampal Memory Indexing Theory" of Teyler and DiScenna. The hypothesis is formulated in the present paper that mental dysfunction observed after chronic ethanol consumption can largely be attributed to a degeneration of the cholinergic pathway of the ascending activation system resulting in an impairment of cortical activation, clinically appearing as the "syndrome of partial cholinergic deafferentation of the cortical mantle".

Decreased axonal calibres without axonal loss in optic nerve following chronic alcohol feeding in adult rats: a morphometric study

The effects of chronic ethanol exposure on number and calibres of optic nerve axons (and number of retinal ganglion cells) were investigated in a rat model. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed a liquid, ethanol-containing diet for 5, 10 and 17 weeks with littermates given isocaloric amounts of ethanol-free diet serving as controls. After fixation by perfusion, the optic nerves were imbedded in epoxy resin and sectioned for electron microscopy. Systematic random sampling was made from a cross-shaped area over the nerve. Axons within a counting frame were counted and morphometrically categorized with regard to mean diameter and the total number of axons estimated from number per area and the cross-sectional area of the nerve, which was measured using a digitizer table. According to non-parametric statistical analysis, ethanol exposure resulted in a significant reduction in mean cross-sectional area of the optic nerve and in mean axonal calibre but not in total axonal number in the ethanol-treated rats but there was no significant effect of duration of the exposure. The mean cross-sectional area of the nerve was reduced by 9%, 10% and 18% after 5, 10 and 17 weeks of exposure, respectively. The reduction in cross-sectional area appeared to be related to a proportional reduction in axonal and myelin area fractions. The findings indicate that chronic ethanol exposure results in decreased axonal calibres without axonal loss. This also implies that there is no reduction in the number of retinal ganglion cells.

Effects of chronic ethanol consumption associated or not with experimental anterior thalamic lesions on spontaneous sequential alternation in mice

Previous studies from our team have shown that a 12 month ethanol administration induced deficits in a sequential alternation task, whereas a 6 month treatment had no effects. We have already shown that the 12 month treatment induced deficits both in diencephalic and hippocampal structures, whereas the 6 month treatment damaged only the mammillary bodies. Thus, the question remained whether or not increasing selectively the diencephalic damage by lesioning the anterior thalamic nuclei would disrupt sequential alternation in 6 month ethanol-treated mice. Results indicate that alcohol-treated mice exhibiting experimental lesions into the anterior thalamus were significantly impaired in the sequential task as compared to both controls or 6 month ethanol-treated mice. In contrast, anterior thalamic lesions in normal (no alcohol treatment) subjects induced no deficits. The relative contribution of the hippocampo-mammillo-thalamic circuitry in sequential alternation is discussed.

Differential effects of chronic ethanol consumptions or thiamine deficiency on spatial working memory in Balb/c mice: a behavioral and neuroanatomical study

This study was aimed to compare the effects of either a thiamine deficiency or a chronic ethanol consumption on memory and on neuronal density within the median mammillary nucleus. Results showed that alcohol-treated (48 weeks) mice exhibited a behavioral impairment in a sequential alternation task characterized by a progressive decay of alternation rates as a function of the number of trials; such a deficit was not observed in controls and thiamine-deficient subjects. A quantitative analysis using histological sections showed an important reduction of neuronal density within the mammillary bodies following the alcohol treatment but not following thiamine deficiency.

Differential changes in cell size and number in topographic subdivisions of human basal nucleus in normal aging

The age-related cell loss of the nucleus basalis of Meynert is of considerable importance because loss of its neurons may be followed by cognitive decline. Compared to the number found at ages 16-29 years, we found that 50% of the total population of neurons is lost by 90 years of age. This change in number is accompanied by modifications in the morphometric features, including a 17.3% increase in cell size by 60 years of age as compared with values at 16 years, and followed by a gradual decline. Topographic differences were seen both in the neuronal loss and in morphometry: in relation to the youngest group, the posterior subdivision is the most severely affected by 90 years (64.5% decrease in number and 10% reduction in neuronal size), followed by the intermediate subdivision (42% loss of neurons accompanied by 4% increase in cell size). In the anterior subdivision no significant decrease in the number of neurons could be detected, although a 15% increase in cell size occurred.

The threshold concentration of dietary ethanol necessary to produce toxic effects on hippocampal cells and synapses in the mouse

A nutritionally complete liquid diet containing 0, 3, 5, or 7% ethanol was fed to C57 mice for 4 months and killed after a further 4 months on a standard food pellet diet. The number of pyramidal cells in Araldite sections of the hippocampus was not significantly reduced in any group relative to the zero alcohol intake group. Synaptic counts in the area occupied by the pyramidal cell basal dendrites showed the 7% alcohol group to have a reduced number of synaptic contacts, with no convincing differences between the other groups relative to the zero alcohol group. All measurements made collectively could not be used to distinguish 3 or 5% ethanol consuming animals from 0% ethanol consuming animals. Significant differences in body weight and dry brain weight were detected in the comparison of the group treated with 7% ethanol and 4-month recovery with the group receiving the 0% ethanol dose and 4-month recovery. It is concluded that maintaining mice on a diet containing not more than 5% ethanol has no adverse long-term structural effects on hippocampal pyramidal cells or synapses.

Loss of neurons in the rat basal forebrain cholinergic projection system after prolonged intake of ethanol

A reduction in the number of acetylcholinesterase (AChE)-positive neurons in the basal nucleus of Meynert complex (NbM, Ch 1 to Ch4) to 83% of control values was observed in rat after ethanol intake (20% v/v) for 12 weeks. Activity of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and AChE in the basal forebrain was simultaneously reduced to 74% and 81% and content of acetylcholine (ACh) to 56% of control values respectively. Neuronal loss showed a gradient over the rostro-caudal extension of the cholinergic projection system being most pronounced in the septal-diagonal band area and reaching 27% in the medial septum (Ch1). Number of AChE-positive neurons was insignificantly reduced in the pedunculopontine nucleus (Ch5) and unchanged in the laterodorsal tegmental gray of the periventricular area (Ch6). ACh content and activity of AChE was significantly reduced in target areas of the NbM such as cortex, hippocampus and amygdala, but changes were less pronounced than in the basal nucleus. The results indicate a neurotoxic effect of prolonged intake of ethanol on cholinergic neurons in the NbM leading to a partial cholinergic denervation of cortex, hippocampus and amygdala. Chronic intake of ethanol in rat is suggested to represent an animal model suitable to test the cholinergic hypothesis of geriatric memory dysfunction and to develop strategies for an amelioration of the impairment in memory and cognitive function in dementing disorders associated with a degeneration in the NbM such as postalcoholic dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Build-up and release from proactive interference during chronic ethanol consumption in mice: a behavioral and neuroanatomical study

Male mice of the BALB/c strain were given a solution of 15% ethanol as their only source of fluid during either 24 or 48 weeks. They were submitted to a sequential alternation (SA) task in a T-maze (6 successive trials). It was found that 48 but not 24 weeks of alcohol administration lead to a deficit as compared to pair-fed or tap-water controls. Whereas experimental mice performed as well as controls on the first 3 choices, they exhibited a gradual decrease in the SA rate on subsequent trials. We suggest that this deficit might result from an exaggerated vulnerability to proactive interference (PI). In order to further test this hypothesis, a second experiment investigated whether a between-trials variation of context of the maze would increase performance. It was found that the SA rate improved as soon as the variation was provided (5th trial). We suggest that the deficit of experimental mice results from an impairment of retrieval processes. A neuroanatomical study was conducted to quantify cell losses resulting from 8, 24 or 48 weeks of ethanol treatment in the mammillary bodies (MM) or the hippocampus (HPC). At the time of appearance of the deficit, MM exhibited a -32% cellular loss, whereas this was only -18% in the HPC. This result emphasises the importance of MM lesion in memory deficits resulting from long-term alcohol consumption.