# EFFECTS OF PRENATAL STRESS & ALCOHOL ON SEXUAL BEHAVIOR

> **NIH NIH R01** · VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY · 1994 · $175,237

## Abstract

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract):  The previous research
in this program, particularly that conducted during the preceding grant
period, has demonstrated that sexually dimorphic behaviors and CNS
structures are incompletely masculinized in adult male rats stressed
during fetal development.  The etiology of this syndrome involves
abnormal ontogenetic plasma testosterone secretion and testicular
steroidogenesis in stressed fetuses.  Similar testicular hormone
alterations have been reported in fetuses of mothers ingesting alcohol
during pregnancy.  Furthermore, exposure to stress increases alcohol
intake.  No data exist regarding cumulative or interactive effects of
maternal stress and alcohol exposure during gestation on the sexual
differentiation of males.  This proposal addresses this problem through
four projects.  Project 1 entails the production of a set of male
offspring from dams exposed to alcohol and/or stress during pregnancy.
The method of choice for alcohol exposure will be one commonly used in
alcohol research in which the sole access to food and water consists of
a nutritionally balanced liquid diet in which 36% of the calories are
derived from ethanol.  The diet administered to control animals is
isocalorically equivalent but ethanol is replaced with maltose-dextrin
or sucrose.  The stress and control groups of animals will be subdivided
into four different dietary treatments that are given from day 10-21 of
gestation.  Stress and control mothers in one dietary condition will
receive access to the liquid alcohol diet.  In a second dietary
condition, stress females will receive access to the liquid control diet,
while control animals will have an amount of liquid diet available that
will be yoked to that consumed by the stressed animals.  The third and
fourth dietary treatments will serve as dietary controls involving equal
caloric intake for the alcohol treatment groups. Because rats decrease
their food intake when alcohol is introduced into their diet the control
groups are needed to dissociate the effects of ethanol from those of
undernutrition.  The treatment groups produced by this 2 X 4 factorial
design allow comparisons for the stress plus ethanol, stress alone, and
ethanol alone groups with equi-caloric consuming, untreated groups.  The
design also provides for evaluation of the cumulative effects of stress
plus ethanol in comparison to stress alone animals whose dietary intake
is yoked to that of stress plus ethanol mothers. Blood levels of alcohol
will be determined independently in a separate set of females that are
bred and placed on the liquid ethanol diet or liquid control diet.  Half
of the animals on the ethanol diet will be stressed and blood will be
sampled from all animals on the eighteenth day of gestation.  On the day
of birth, pups from litters in the various treatment conditions will be
counted, sexed, weighed, and ano-genital distance measured. Litters will
be cross-fostered to untreated females ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 2194866
- **Project number:** 5R01HD004688-22
- **Recipient organization:** VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY
- **SAM.gov UEI:** EYNYSU6L8ZX6
- **Principal Investigator:** INGEBORG L WARD
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1994
- **Award amount:** $175,237
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1978-01-01 → 1995-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/2194866

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 2194866, EFFECTS OF PRENATAL STRESS & ALCOHOL ON SEXUAL BEHAVIOR (5R01HD004688-22). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/2194866. Licensed CC0.

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