Rat Brain Damage Induced By Chronic Alcohol Consumption And Protective Effects Of Grape Polyphenols

Recently the rate of chronic alcohol consumption has beengrowing up rapidly with the increasing of people's alcohol ingestion.Chronic alcohol ingestion is known to cause oxidative damage ofmany organs, but nowadays, the domestic investigations aboutalcoholism focus on liver and heart, while lack of the research on thebrain damage. Scientists abroad mostly observe FAS (Fetal alcoholsyndrome), so it is essential to build a new kind of animal model tomeet the need of the domestic research. GP (Grape polyphenols) is a phytoalexin of grape, considerd asa good protecting from oxidation, inflammation, platelet aggregation,and thrombus formation. In this review, we focus on it's beneficeffects which protecting brain from alcoholism. We established a ratmodel after chronic alcohol comsuption caused by free drinkingalcohol, and explore the protection of GP through its intervention. Adult male rats, weight varying from 250g to 300g, werechosen as subjects of our research. They were divided into 4 groupsafter Initial screening:â‘ control group were fed with water andgeneral diet. â‘¡GP grpup were fed by water and 100g/kg/d GP.â‘¢alcoholism group were began with receiving a 6% (v/v) alcoholsolution as the only source of liquid for 5 days. From that point,every fifth day, the percentage of alcohol in the solutionwasincreased, first to a 9% (v/v) solution, followed by a 12% (v/v)solution, and finally to the desired 20% (v/v) alcohol solution. Thisgroup were also fed with general diet. â‘£Therapy group were fed byalcohol (same method as alcoholism group) and 100g/kg/d GP. Theweight of each group were test every week. Morris water mazeexperiment was adopted to test the rats' memory change of eachgroup. The escape incubation period expressed the rats'memoryability. Brain samples with HE staining from frontal lobe,temporallobe and hippocampus and cerebellum with light microscopicmethods.Explore alcohol brain damage and protection of GP throughevaluating Biological changes, Behavioral changes andPathological changes of therapy group and alcoholism group at 2months, 3 months and 4months.The results are as follows:(1) Model evaluation: Animal model of chronic alcoholismcan be successful established by free drinking alcohol of graduallyincreasing percentage. This kind of Animal model have theadvantages of high success rate, low mortality (3%), stability and iseasy to repeat. At the same time, as a Non-invasive model, Itprovided a long-term supply method of adequate alcohol which istruly similar to the human disease.(2) Weight changes: Weight of alcoholism group began todecrease at 3 weeks, reach to the minimum at 4 weeks, and resumeto increase at 6 weeks. Although the therapy group's weight have asimilar trend to alcoholism group, it's weight declined less thenalcoholism group, and rapidly return to positive growth after 1week. Also, the therapy group's weight increased rapidly thancontrol group.(3) Behavioral changes: After 2 months feeding alcohol, wefound that the rats in alcoholism group became more stupid thanother groups, and with the time going, this situation become moreseriously, some of them can not find the platform even in threeminutes.(4) Pathological changes: The degeneration and detachmentof neuron could be seen in the rats of alcoholism group, so didthe necrosis of the neurons and hypertrophic glia. We thoughtthese pathological changes were due to the chronic alcoholconsumption, while, the therapy group's neurons declining is lessdamaged than alcoholism group.From the whole experiment we can conclude:â‘ Animal model of chronic alcoholism can be successfulestablished with free drinking alcohol increasing dose gradually.â‘¡Chronic alcohol consumption caused the rat's weight transientlydecreased, while GP weakened this effect. â‘¢The rats induced bychronic alcohol consumption showed progressive cognitionimpairment following chronic alcohol consumption, GP preventedrat's brain from this damage. â‘£ The pyramidal neurons of ratsdecreased progressively after chronic alcohol consumption, GPlessened neurons injury.