Gestational Ethanol Exposure Induces Sex-specific Striatal Acetylcholine and Dopamine Deficits

ABSTRACT Fetal alcohol exposure has deleterious consequences on the cognitive abilities and motor skills of patients affected by Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) and in pre-clinical models of gestational ethanol exposure (GEE). Deficits in striatal cholinergic and dopamine function impair action learning and execution, yet the effects of GEE on striatal acetylcholine and dopamine release remain unexplored. Here, we report that ethanol (EtOH) exposure during the first ten postnatal days (GEE P0-P10 ), which mimics EtOH consumption during the last gestational trimester in humans, induces enduring sex-specific anatomical and motor learning deficits in female mice. These behavioral impairments were accompanied by increased evoked-dopamine levels in the dorsolateral striatum (DLS) of GEE P0-P10 female, but not male, mice. Further experiments revealed impaired striatal β2-containing nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChRs)-modulation of electrically evoked dopamine release. Using a genetically encoded acetylcholine sensor (GACh 3.0 ), we found a reduced decay of acetylcholine transients in DLS of GEE P0-P10 females in the presence of an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor galantamine. Finally, we showed that this effect is associated with decreased excitability of striatal cholinergic interneurons (CINs), pointing to activity-dependent defects in acetylcholine release. Altogether, these data shed a new light on striatal deficits that might underlie cognitive and motor learning symptoms of patients affected by FASD.