Can drinking alcohol harm the child before the mother knows she is pregnant?

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-05/uoh-cda051315.php

Public Release: 13-May-2015
University of Helsinki

Alcohol drunk by a mouse in early pregnancy changes the way genes function in the brains of the offspring, shows the recent study conducted at the University of Helsinki. The early exposure was also later apparent in the brain structure of the adult offspring. The timing of the exposure corresponds to the human gestational weeks 3-6 in terms of fetal development.

In addition, the exposure to alcohol was found to cause similar changes to gene function in other tissues of the infant mice. These results suggest that alcohol causes permanent changes to gene regulation in the first cells of developing embryo.

Exposure to alcohol during pregnancy may damage the child in many different ways, including learning disabilities as well as congenital deformities. The mechanisms through which alcohol impacts fetal development are not yet fully understood, and diagnosing the damage caused to the child is difficult.

In the mouse model where the dam drinks alcohol in early pregnancy, the offspring exhibit symptoms similar to fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) in humans: decreased growth rate, similar structural changes to corresponding areas of the face and scull, and hyperactivity. The early exposure begins at conception and continues until the nervous system begins to develop. In humans, this corresponds to the first three or four weeks after conception in terms of development - a period during which the mother-to-be is often unaware of being pregnant.

Early pregnancy is an active time for cell division and differentiation. All the different cell types share a similar DNA strand, but in each of them a unique epigenome is formed to regulate their gene function. At this stage, the embryo is vulnerable to external influences, and any changes can spread extensively to different tissues as cells divide.

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