We reported previously that alcohol feeding using the liquid diet did not change body weight or litter size of dams and body weight of offspring [21]. Using this animal model of alcohol feeding, we show here that fetal alcohol exposed offspring had reduced levels of POMC gene expression (Fig. 1A) and increased levels of POMC promoter methylation in MBH tissue (Fig. 1B). Our previous results also showed the same trend in arcuate nucleus [21]. These results are consistent with previous reports that fetal alcohol exposure epigenetically programs the POMC gene to express its transcript in a lower level [17], [21].
