If parents drink alcohol in the weeks before conception, it can cause brain damage in the child. This also applies to fathers. At least, this is what experiments with mice indicate.

Mothers who drink alcohol during pregnancy can cause severe damage to their children: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is associated with brain damage, learning and behavioral disorders. Some children also show typical facial changes. It is not uncommon for them to be dependent on help for the rest of their lives.

But does alcohol-related damage to the child really come exclusively from the mother? Researchers at Texas A&M University have investigated this.
Changed face, smaller brain

Their experiments with mice cast doubt on this conviction: they show that alcohol consumption before conception significantly disturbs the development of offspring in both the father and the mother.

Baby mice whose parents had access to alcohol before conception exhibited developmental brain and facial abnormalities. The researchers found, among other things

•     reduced head and brain size (microcephaly)
•     reduced eye size, especially on the right side
•     changes in the lower part of the face, including the jaws
•     altered ear position

Similar changes are also found in male children with FAS.

"For some measures, maternal alcohol exposure had a stronger effect, and for others, paternal exposure had a stronger effect," study leader Michael C. Golding explained in response to a question from NetDoctor. For example, paternal exposure had a stronger effect on eye size.

The mice had access to alcohol for four hours a day over a period of six weeks. In the process, the animals reached substantial blood alcohol levels of about 0.8 to 1.2 parts per thousand. The former is a limit at which one is still allowed to drive a car in the USA, for example.

The researchers are still investigating whether alcohol consumption by the parents before conception also affects the cognitive abilities and behavior of the mouse babies.Effects of alcohol on germ cells not sufficiently researched

"Because of the mistaken belief that sperm do not pass on information beyond the genetic code, the impact of paternal alcohol consumption on the development of alcohol-related birth defects has not been thoroughly studied," the authors write. So there is a blind spot in knowledge about the influence of alcohol on offspring.

Time and again, there are mothers of children with clear signs of FAS who affirm that they did not drink alcohol during pregnancy. Until now, they have not been believed.

But the mouse study at least opens up the possibility that there could be other explanations for alcohol-related damage in the womb. Namely, that alcohol consumption even before conception could have impaired the development of the fetus - and also on the part of the father.

Whether the results can actually be transferred to humans, however, still needs to be investigated.
Altered mitochondria?

"We suspect that paternal alcohol consumption leads to changes in mitochondrial function in the offspring, but we have not yet identified the exact mechanism," study leader Michael C. Golding tells NetDoktor. Mitochondria are structures inside all cells. Like tiny power plants, they supply the cell with energy - including the sperm.

Initial study data from the U.S. and Australia showed that this could also apply to the mother's eggs, the scientist said. This means that not only paternal, but also maternal alcohol consumption before conception could harm the child.

One conclusion that can already be drawn is therefore Anyone who wishes to have children should reduce their alcohol consumption as much as possible to be on the safe side - regardless of whether they are a man or a woman.

Incidentally, this also applies to fathers-to-be after successful conception: If they also abstain from alcohol during pregnancy, the probability that the mother-to-be will also survive the crucial nine months alcohol-free increases.

Author:

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. Since 2001, the experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and non-fiction texts on every conceivable health topic. In addition to her work for NetDoktor, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs, and publishes her own mystery novels.

• Thomas, K.N. et al. : Preconception paternal ethanol exposures induce alcohol-related craniofacial growth deficiencies in fetal offspring, J Clin Invest. 11. April 2023, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI167624.