Evidence map›Paper›PMID 25077510›Full record

ArticlePhysiological reports2014

Low-dose maternal alcohol consumption: effects in the hearts of offspring in early life and adulthood.

Vivian B Nguyen, Megan E Probyn, Fiona Campbell, Kom V Yin, Chrishan S Samuel, Monika A Zimanyi, John F Bertram, Mary Jane Black, Karen M Moritz

Abstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Physiological reports, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
18citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

18 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Echocardiographic assessment of cardiac growth in children with structurally normal hearts.American heart journal plus : cardiology research and practice · 2026
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  18. Alcohol-Induced Developmental Origins of Adult-Onset Diseases.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2016
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Vivian B NguyenDepartment of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Megan E ProbynSchool of Biomedical Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Fiona CampbellSchool of Biomedical Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Kom V YinDepartment of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Chrishan S SamuelDepartment of Pharmacology, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Monika A ZimanyiDepartment of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
John F BertramDepartment of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Mary Jane BlackDepartment of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Karen M MoritzSchool of Biomedical Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

High alcohol consumption during pregnancy leads to deleterious effects on fetal cardiac structure and it also affects cardiomyocyte growth and maturation. This study aimed to determine whether low levels of maternal alcohol consumption are also detrimental to cardiomyocyte and cardiac growth in the early life of offspring and whether cardiac structure and function in adulthood is affected. Pregnant Sprague-Dawley rat dams were fed a control or 6% (volume/volume) liquid-based ethanol supplemented (isocaloric) diet throughout gestation. At embryonic day 20, the expression of genes involved in cardiac development was analyzed using Real-time PCR. At postnatal day 30, cardiomyocyte number, size, and nuclearity in the left ventricle (LV) were determined stereologically. In 8-month-old offspring, LV fibrosis and cardiac function (by echocardiography) were examined. Maternal ethanol consumption did not alter gene expression of the cardiac growth factors in the fetus or cardiomyocyte number in weanling offspring. However, at 8 months, there were significant increases in LV anterior and posterior wall thickness during diastole in ethanol-exposed offspring (P = 0.037 and P = 0.024, respectively), indicative of left ventricular hypertrophy; this was accompanied by a significant increase in fibrosis. Additionally, maximal aortic flow velocity was significantly decreased in ethanol-exposed offspring (P = 0.035). In conclusion, although there were no detectable early-life differences in cardiac and cardiomyocyte growth in animals exposed to a chronic low dose of ethanol during gestation, there were clearly deleterious outcomes by adulthood. This suggests that even relatively low doses of alcohol consumed during pregnancy can be detrimental to long-term cardiac health in the offspring.

Indexed as

Cardiomyocyteethanolheartprenatalrat

Identifiers

PMID25077510
PMCPMC4187541

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.