Photonic localization probe of molecular specific intranuclear structural alterations in brain cells due to fetal alcoholism via confocal microscopy

TL;DR

This study uses photonic localization microscopy to detect nanoscale structural changes in brain cell nuclei caused by fetal alcohol exposure, revealing increased DNA disorder and reduced histone modification.

Contribution

It introduces a molecular specific photonic localization technique to quantify nanoscale structural alterations in brain cells due to fetal alcohol exposure.

Findings

Increased spatial disorder in DNA of fetal alcohol-affected brain cells.

Reduced histone modifications indicating chromatin remodeling.

Potential link between DNA unwinding and gene expression changes.

Abstract

Molecular specific photonic localization is a sensitive technique to probe the structural alterations or abnormalities in a cell such as abnormalities due to alcohol or other drugs. Alcohol consumption during pregnancy by mother, or fetal alcoholism, is one of the major factors of mental retardation in children. Fetal alcohol syndrome and alcohol related neurodevelopmental disorder are awful outcomes of the maternal alcohol consumption linked with notable cognitive and behavioral defects. Alcohol consumed by the pregnant mother, being teratogenic, interferes with the fetal health resulting brain damage and other birth defects. This might affect the brain cells at the very nanolevel which cannot be predicted by the present histopathological procedures. We perform quantification of nanoscale spatial structural alterations in two different spatial molecular components, DNA and histone molecular mass densities, in brain cell nuclei of fetal alcohol effected (FAE) pups at postnatal day 60. Confocal images of the brain cells are collected and the degree of morphological alterations in DNA and histone, in terms of mass density fluctuations are obtained using the recently developed molecular specific light or photonic localization analysis technique. The results show an increase in degree of spatial structural disorder in DNA and a reduced histone modification. Increase in spatial disorder in DNA may suggest DNA unwinding and possibly responsible for increase in gene expression. Reduced histone modification may suggest its release from the DNA and help in the unwinding of DNA and gene expression. The probable cause for structural disorder as well as opposite rearrangements for DNA and histone molecules in fetal alcohol effects is also discussed.