Boric acid supplementation can prevent oxidative damage caused by prenatal alcohol exposure in rat cerebral cortex

Abstract

Depending on its acute or chronic usage and the dosage, alcohol has toxic effects on both mother and fetus when it is administered during pregnancy 1. Up till now, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) has been shown to include alcohol-related birth defects (ARBD), alcohol-related neurological disorders (ARND) and fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS). Children born with FAS have some difficulties in learning, memory, attention span, communication, hearing and vision. In order to overcome this problem, new strategies should be developed to prevent the teratogenic effects of alcohol on fetus. Oxidative stress has been shown to be related to many diseases including FAS 2. Oxidative stress leads to increasing lipid peroxidation and reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation that results in malfunction of the enzymes and membrane disruption 3. Antioxidants such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) have role in ROS detoxification.