Alcohol-induced Purkinje cell loss depends on developmental timing of alcohol exposure and correlates with motor performance

Several reports indicate that neonatal ethanol exposure induces cerebellar Purkinje and granule cell loss if exposure occurs before .postnatal day PD 7, and that cerebellar damage may underlie ethanol-induced motor deficits. The present study used an unbiased stereological method, the optical fractionator, to count total cerebellar Purkinje cell number in groups of Sprague–Dawley rats given .binge-like ethanol exposure at different neonatal ages. Correlations between Purkinje cell number of 55-day-old rats and parallel bar .motor performance previously tested on PD 30–32 were also evaluated. One group was given binge-like exposure to 6.6 grkg per da