Bone impairment in adolescent female rats chronically exposed to ethanol

Ethanol consumption has increased among teenagers worldwide considerably,including females. Long-term ethanol consumption in women has been reported to cause bone metabolism imbalance. However, only few studies are available on the impact of long-term ethanol consumptionon bone morphology during adolescence. Here, we report the effects of chronic ethanol consumption on bone structure in adolescent female rats. Twenty female Wistar rats (35 days old) received, by gavage, distilled water (control) or ethanol (6.5 g/kg/day, 22.5% w/v) once daily for 55 days. After ethanol administration, animals were perfused, and the femora were collected. Morphometric evaluations were performed by electron microscopy scanning. Femora length, cortical bone thickness and medullar hone diameter was measured. The results demonstrated that ethanol exposure during adolescence reduced the length of femurs, with a decrease of the anterior thickness, posterior thickness, and mid-lateral diameter (P<0.05). Thus, long-term ethanol intake may lead to alterations on bone morphometry, reducing the thickness of compact bone and femur length in adolescent females.