All three trimester binge alcohol exposure causes fetal cerebellar purkinje cell loss in the presence of maternal hypercapnea, acidemia, and normoxemia: ovine model.

Background: The third trimester equivalent has been identified, both in rat and sheep models, as a period of cerebellar vulnerability to alcohol-mediated injury. We wished to determine whether alcohol exposure throughout gestation results in greater injury compared with exposure limited to the third trimester equivalent. While this question has previously been addressed in the rat model, where the third trimester equivalent occurs postnatally, it has not yet been addressed in an animal model where all 3 trimester equivalents occur prenatally, as in the ovine.