Can cholesterol help protect against damage done by exposure to alcohol in the womb?
A study of zebrafish suggests that a simple intervention may help to protect unborn children against the damage done by mothers who drink alcohol during pregnancy. Yin-Xiong Li and colleagues found that exposing zebrafish embryos to low levels of alcohol during very early development blocked the modification of a crucial developmental protein, Sonic Hedgehog (Shh), by cholesterol. The modification of Shh by cholesterol plays a critical role in enabling the protein to guide cell formation and differentiation and embryonic “patterning.” Shh is key to the development of the neural tube and early cardiac, gut, and limb structures-all areas affected in fetal alcohol syndrome. The current study found that alcohol-exposed zebrafish showed defects very similar to those seen in humans exposed to alcohol in utero, including neurological, heart, cranial, and limb malformations. Defects occurred even at very low levels of fetal tissue alcohol concentration, equivalent to those reached if a 120-pou
