Table 1.

Summary of morphological effects of alcohol

a
	Cell-type	Species	Alcohol Treatment	Age Studied	Method	Main Findings	Ref
Hippocampus	CA1 Pyramidal	Rat	5 months liquid diet (1-6 months old)	6-8 months	Golgi-Cox	↓ basilar dendritic branching ↑ basilar dendritic branching after 2 months withdrawal	1
		Rat	Prenatal and postnatal drinking (E1-P21)	P15 - 3 months	Golgi	↓ thin spines at P15-40 ↑ wider spines (wide, mushroom, or stubby) at P15-40 ≈ spine morphology at P90	2
		Mouse	single i.p. injection	3 WIV	GFP labeling	Altered spine shape and density by 2 alcohol-related genes	3
	Primary cultures	Rat	4 day in vitro (50 mM)	15 DIV	F-actin and PSD-95 staining	↑ synaptic PSD-95 and larger F-actin clusters ↑ spine density	4
Cortex	2/3 pyramidal (associative)	Rat	4 days vapor inhalation (P2-P6; 3h/day)	3 months	Biotin retrograde labeling	↓ dendritic length ↓ dendritic branching	5
	2/3 pyramidal (mPFC)	Rat	Prenatal and postnatal intragastric (E1-P10; 3.0- 4.5 g/kg/day)	3 months	Golgi	↓ apical dendritic branching ↓ spine density	6
		Rat	5 days gavage (P4-P9; 5.25 g/kg/day)	1 months	Golgi-Cox	↓ spine density ≈ dendritic length and branching	7
Striatum	MSN (NAc)	Rat	14 weeks continuous vs. intermittent drinking (3-6 months old)	~ 6 months	Fluorescent dye micro-injection	↓ spine density at 3rd order dendrites ↑ spine head size (intermittent) Altered dendritic morphology (thickened, beaded, or curved)	8
		Rat	Prenatal and postnatal intragastric (E1-P10; 3.0- 4.5 g/kg/day)	3 months	Golgi	↑ dendritic branching (females) ≈ spine density and soma size	6
	MSN (dorsal)	Macaque	2.5 years intermittent drinking (8-10 years old)	~ 10 years	DiOlistics	↑ spine density in putamen (dorsolateral striatum) ≈ spine density in caudate (dorsomedial striatum)	9
Subst. Nigra	Fusiform / pyramidal	Rat	Prenatal liquid diet (E0- birth)	P15	Golgi-Cox and TH labeling	↓ size of cell bodies (fusiform neurons) ↓ dendritic branching (2nd, 3 rd, 4 th order) ≈ number of TH-positive neurons	10
Cerebellum	Purkinje	Rat	1, 3, 6, 12 and 18 months drinking	1-18 months	Golgi	↓ spine density after 3 months ↓ branching (1st and 2nd order; progressive after 6 months) ↓ dendritic length	11
		Rat	5 months alcohol in sucrose drinking (20% alcohol in 5% suc)	6 months	Golgi	↑ spine length	12
	Primary cultures	Rat	8-48 hours in vitro (50-200 mM)	8-48 HIV	Biotin filling	↑ neurite outgrowth (branch numbers and total length) ↑ soma size	13

b
Cell Density			Soma Size			Branching			Dendritic Length			Spine Density			Spine Size			Wide Spines			Thin Spines			Spine Length
↑	↓	≈	↑	↓	≈	↑	↓	≈	↑	↓	≈	↑	↓	≈	↑	↓	≈	↑	↓	≈	↑	↓	≈	↑	↓	≈
							1
							5					4	6
		10	13	10	6	6	6	7		5	7	9	7	6	4			2		2		2	2	12
					7	1	10			11			8	9	8
							11						11

a. Selected studies are categorized by brain region (left-most column). Subsequent columns describe other characteristics and findings for each particular study. The alcohol treatment column is typically presented as: duration of treatment, type of treatment (age of exposure and/or ethanol concentration). HIV=hours in vitro; WIV=weeks in vitro; DIV=days in vitro; “↑”=increase; “↓”=decrease; “≈” = no significant difference; E=embryonic day; P=postnatal day.

b. Findings summarized according to specific morphological perturbations. References appear as numbers: 1 – McMullen et al., 1984; 2 - Tarelo-Acuna et al., 2000; 3 - Piechota et al., 2010; 4 - Carpenter-Hyland and Chandler, 2006; 5 - Granato and Van Pelt, 2003; 6 - Lawrence et al., 2012; 7 - Whitcher and Klintsova, 2008; 8 - Zhou et al., 2007; 9 - Cuzon Carlson et al., 2011; 10 - Shetty et al., 1993; 11 - Tavares et al., 1983; 12 - Wenisch et al., 1998; 13 - Zou et al., 1993.