The effects of ethanol on planarian regeneration
Ethanol exposure during embryogenesis has teratogenic effects in both humans and animals. Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) refers to a group of symptoms that result when a woman consumes alcohol during pregnancy, affecting embryo development. Common characteristics of children with FAS are: craniofacial malformations, learning disabilities, and eye abnormalities. Many studies using animal models (vertebrate and invertebrate) have demonstrated that the central nervous system and the eye structures are extremely sensitive to the effects of ethanol. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of ethanol on planarian regeneration. Given that planarians have neoblasts, a population of pluripotent stem cells that is present throughout the organism's life span, development and regeneration can be studied. Knowing that S. mediterranea shares many genes with vertebrates, we propose to use this animal as a simple model to study the effects of ethanol on cells during regeneration. S. mediterranea was exposed to different ethanol concentrations (0.1%, 0.75% and 1.5%) in order to see how ethanol affects the regeneration process, specifically brain and photoreceptor development. Animals exposed to the highest concentrations of ethanol showed photoreceptor development abnormalities and changes in regeneration, suggesting that S. mediterranea could be a useful model to study the effects of ethanol on regeneration and development.
School:
University of Puerto Rico at Humacao
Department:
Chemistry
Research Advisor:
Phillip Newmark
Department of Research Advisor:
Cell and Structural Biology
Year of Publication:
2007