(Montreal) Adding certain nutrients to the diet could help reduce the dangers of excessive alcohol consumption during the first days of pregnancy, suggests a study published by Montreal researchers.
However, it should not be concluded that women who are trying to become pregnant can drink at will as long as they include these nutrients in their diet, said Serge McGraw, who is an epigenetics researcher and specialist in reproductive biology at the CHU Sainte-Justine.
“We mainly aim to have a preventive message, for example for women who have deficiencies (food) and who would try to become pregnant, he said. The message is not, “I can take vitamins before I drink and that will prevent problems”. »
Science has known for quite some time that alcohol consumption can be perilous to the fetus at all stages of pregnancy. Consequences will range from mild to severe, and may include birth defects, growth retardation during pregnancy, and emotional and behavioral problems related to brain development.
It is estimated that approximately 1% of children in North America suffer from the effects of exposure to alcohol in their mother’s womb.
However, little is known about the effect of alcohol on the fetus during the first days of pregnancy, before it implants in the uterus and even before the woman knows she is pregnant. .
Professor McGraw and his colleagues wanted to know if adding nutrients such as folic acid, vitamin B12, choline and betaine to the diet would have a protective effect on mouse embryos exposed to high doses of alcohol.
These nutrients, he explained, play a major role in controlling gene expression.
“A great example is folic acid deficiency that will lead to problems with neural tube development,” McGraw said. This is why in Canada and in several countries, folic acid is added (to food). »
The researchers found that the pups born to the females who had benefited from this special diet had three times fewer morphological defects, for example with regard to the size of their skulls.
However, the beneficial impact was much more modest on growth retardation, possibly due to the effect of alcohol on the placenta.
Scientists will now try to check whether these babies also have fewer developmental or behavioral problems than the others, in particular by comparing mice from the same litter.
“For example, will baby mice born with low weight or brain development problems have problems with cognition,” McGraw said. With this diet, will we have been able to reduce the impacts at the cognitive level? »
The results of this study were recently published in The FASEB journalthe journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.