Table 1.
Evaluation of Alcohol Administration Methods for Rats During Development
| Methoda | Period of exposure |
Experimenter control of dose |
Nutritional control | Stress | Pharmacological time course |
Technical difficulty and equipment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vapor inhalation (15,16) | Prenatal | Yes | No, but no observed body weight differences | Yes, restricted to breathing ethanol fumes | Very swift increase phase compared with oral ingestion | Easy, requires inhalation chambers |
| Vapor inhalation (15,16) | Postnatal | Yes | No, but no observed body weight differences | Yes, restricted to breathing ethanol fumes | Very swift increase phase compared with oral ingestion | Easy, requires inhalation chambers |
| Liquid diet (17,18) | Prenatal | No | Yes, observed effects | Yes, diet restriction | Results from oral ingestion | Easy, requires graduated liquid containers |
| Artificial rearing (19,20) | Postnatal | Yes | Yes, observed effects | Yes, handling and maternal and sibling deprivation | Results from oral ingestion by the pup | Difficult, requires infusion pumps |
| Intragastric intubation (13,14,21,22) | Prenatal | Yes | Yes, no observed body weight differences in dams | Yes, intragastric intubation and handling | Results from oral ingestion by dam | Easy, requires feeding tubes |
| Intragastric intubation (13,14,21,22) | Postnatal | Yes | No, but no observed body weight differences in pups | Yes, intragastric intubation and handling | Results from oral ingestion by the pup | Moderate, requires PE tubing |
a
The references given for each method are representative and not exhaustive.