Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is the unfortunate result of pregnant mothers drinking too much alcohol. Despite the warnings, up to 3 in every 1000 babies are born with fetal alcohol syndrome, which ultimately results in intellectual disabilities, behavioral problems, growth defects and abnormal facial features. It is not clearly understood how alcohol consumption causes these results.
Researchers at the University of California San Francisco studied fetal alcohol syndrome using the fruit fly. The study results establish a new system for learning how alcohol causes harmful effects during fetal development. When the researchers exposed fruit flies to alcohol during development, the fruit flies had smaller brains, grew at a slower rate, had abnormal behavior and were ultimately more sensitive to the effects of alcohol as adults.
The issue of how much, if any, alcohol a woman can drink during pregnancy, has been a contentious one. The researchers has concluded that larger amounts of alcohol had more severe effects on the fruit fly's development and behavior.
"We can't truly draw analogies before we know exactly which biological processes are being affected at these different stages of development. But it's very clear that exposure to alcohol early, during a rapid phase of growth, has different effects than later, when the brain is getting put together," said the study's lead researcher.
