Sprague-Dawley rats were obtained from Charles River (Wilmington, MA), housed in controlled conditions with a 12 h light/dark cycle at a constant temperature 22°C throughout the study. These rats were bred in our animal facility. On gestational day 7 through 21, pregnant rats were fed rat chow ad libitum (AD), a liquid diet containing ethanol (AF; Bioserve, Frenchtown, NJ) or pair-fed (PF) an isocaloric liquid control diet (with ethanol calories replaced by maltose-dextrin; Bioserve). To habituate the dams with an alcohol diet, they were fed a liquid diet containing 1.7% (v/v) ethanol on day 7 and 8 and then 5.0% (v/v) ethanol on day 9 and 10. From days 11 to 21, animals were fed with 6.7% ethanol (v/v) providing about 35% of the total dietary calories. Previous studies have shown that the peak blood ethanol concentration is achieved in the range of 120–150 mg/dl in pregnant dams fed with this liquid diet [24]. After birth, AF and PF pups were cross fostered with the rat chow fed (AD) fostering dams until postnatal day 22 to control the possible effect
