Alcohol versus neurons

2001/11/22 Galarraga Aiestaran, Ana - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Anatomia/Fisiologia
• Osasuna

The study was released at the meeting of the Neuroscience Association on 14 November. According to the study carried out with mice, alcohol, in addition to killing neurons, slows the reproduction of neurons and even those born have a shorter life.

Until a few years ago it was thought that the brain of adults did not create new neurons. However, it was shown that the assumption was corrupt and, for example, the proliferation of neurons in the hippocampus was observed. This area of the brain controls the learning process and memory, and faced with the problems that alcoholics have with these functions, the researchers decided to study the influence of alcohol on the hippocampus.

Thus, through a catheter alcohol was introduced into the stomach of mice, maintaining a blood alcohol concentration of 0.35% for four days, equivalent to that of chronic alcoholists. Those in the control group were given sugary water to receive the same amount of calories. In addition, a chemical was injected daily to detect new neurons. After these four days, the abstemious mice had 2,500 new neurons, while the sarruteros had only 57% of those figures. A month later, how many of these new neurons died and the difference was significant: half of the neurons in the control group died and those who received alcohol lost all. In addition, it seems that alcohol prevents the birth of neurons for months.

However, it will be necessary to analyze whether the memory and study problems of alcoholics have to do with what happens in the hippocampus of mice.