Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0000-9425-2855

Date Available

4-25-2025

Year of Publication

2025

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College

Arts and Sciences

Department/School/Program

Psychology

Faculty

Dr. Mark Prendergast

Faculty

none

Abstract

According to the National Survey of Drug Use and Health in 2023, 28.9 million people over the age of 12 in the United States meet criteria for an Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). AUDs result in a range of both social and behavioral consequences, caused by damage to the central nervous system. The hippocampus is a brain structure that undergoes cellular changes in the presence of ethanol, thus causing structural and functional damage. Impairments in neurogenesis, or the production of new neurons, due to ethanol exposure result in decreased plasticity and consequently memory impairments. The mechanisms of these ethanol-induced decreases in hippocampal neurogenesis, however, are unclear.

Previous studies have shown that Neuropeptide Y (NPY) plays a role in the initiation of neurogenesis, and that there is reduced NPY expressions during ethanol exposure. The purpose of the current study is to directly examine whether the decreases of NPY upon ethanol exposure are related to the decreases in hippocampal neurogenesis. For this study, an organotypic hippocampal slice culture (OHSC) model will be utilized to directly isolate hippocampal tissue from neonatal rats, while still maintaining structural and functional morphology of the hippocampus. The cultured hippocampal slices will be treated with combinations of ethanol and NPY to determine changes in neuronal death and expression of mature and immature neurons among the treatment groups.

Determining NPY as a possible contributor to these neurological changes during alcohol exposure would help to create more targeted treatment approaches for AUDs and determining how to counteract the cognitive deficits they cause.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2025.56

Funding Information

This study was supported by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Training Grant T32 AA027488 and the Lipman Alcohol Research Grant.

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