tissue of the ethanol treated subjects (n=6) compared to controls (n=6). Thus, cell death is observed in the dentate gyrus immediately following binge alcohol exposure in adolescence. Previous work has suggested that binge alcohol exposure in adult rats results in a necrotic form of cell death (Obernier et al., 2002). However, perinatal alcohol exposure is thought to be apoptotic (Ikonomidou et al., 2000). Therefore, to specifically examine cell death due to apoptosis, TUNEL staining was conducted in a subset of subjects. As can be seen in Figure 7, very few TUNEL-positive cells were observed in ethanol-exposed tissue and essentially no TUNEL labeling was detected in controls. Although analysis of these data revealed a slight but significant increase (p<0.02) in TUNEL cells in ethanol exposed tissue (n=5) versus control (n=3), less than two TUNEL+ cells were observed per section at most. These data strongly support that alcohol-induced cell death is not likely apoptotic in adolescent rats after binge alcohol exposure.
