Fetal Alcohol Syndrome FAS: Symptoms, Causes & Treatment

Activated microglia also exhibit changes in gene expression, function and produce an array of pro-inflammatory cytokines, chemokines and reactive oxygen species (ROS). Microglia polarize, much like T-cells, becoming relatively pro- or anti-inflammatory depending on the surrounding environmental cues present (Nakagawa and Chiba, 2015). Microglia are also capable of clearing pathogens or cellular debris via phagocytosis.

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They also share experiences and tips about diagnosis, support, stigma, and resilience. Clearer signs that a baby has fetal alcohol syndrome include specific facial features, the size of the baby’s head, and problems with sleeping and sucking. Make sure that people who can become pregnant or are already pregnant learn that drinking alcohol while pregnant can be potentially harmful to their babies. Anyone who is pregnant should have regular care throughout the pregnancy.

Structural Brain Abnormalities in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

Treatment strategies for FAS include nonpharmacologic and pharmacologic interventions. One study found life expectancy is significantly reduced compared to people without FAS (most often due to external causes such as suicide, accidents, or overdose of alcohol or drugs). Occupational therapy may also help people with FASD manage their symptoms.

• Other issues, like learning disabilities or ADHD, may improve with appropriate therapies, medications, and other support.
• Over time, a number of secondary effects can happen in people with FAS, particularly in those who aren’t treated for the condition in childhood.
• If you did drink any amount of alcohol during pregnancy, it’s important to know that your healthcare provider and your baby’s pediatrician need to know to help you plan for your child’s future.
• Parents and siblings might also need help in dealing with the challenges this condition can cause.
• Parental training is meant to help parents to help families cope with behavioral, educational and social challenges.
• FASD may present in childhood or early adulthood with mild social or intellectual concerns, or it can present with birth defects and growth problems during pregnancy.

What can be expected after treatment for fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)?

Prenatal alcohol exposure in vivo also causes a decrease in GFAP fibers in cerebellar Bergman glia on PND 15, reflecting a delayed maturation of these cells that may contribute to the delayed migration of granule cells (Shetty and Phillips, 1992). Developmental exposure to alcohol lead to decreased density and fasciculation of radial glial processes that run from the ventricular surface to the pial surface (Miller and Robertson, 1993) during the first week following birth. This was accompanied by a decrease in vimentin staining on PND 5 compared to non-exposed control animals. This study also observed a greater percentage of cells derived from alcohol-exposed embryos remaining as radial glia in culture as opposed to differentiating into neurons or astrocytes following 2 days of culture compared to control cultures (Rubert et al., 2006).

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Symptoms

• The alcohol passes from the mother’s bloodstream through the placenta into the blood supply of the developing baby.
• Parents can also receive parental training tailored to the needs of their children.
• It is a causal factor in more than 200 diseases and injury conditions, and it causes more than 90,000 deaths each year.” Amelia Burgess, MD, MPH, FAAP, FASAM, is a board-certified pediatrician and addiction specialist.
• There can also be mental and emotional challenges throughout the person’s life that can impact their social life, education and work.

This effect is in part mediated by the upregulation of the tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) which converts plasminogen to plasmin, an extracellular proteolytic enzyme that degrades the ECM (Zhang et al., 2014). Chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs) are inhibitors of neurite outgrowth. We found that alcohol upregulates the levels of CSPGs through the inhibition of the enzyme arulsulfatase B (ARSB).

Learning and thinking issues

Such disruptions of normal cortical development are thought to underlie deficits in executive functions, verbal drunken baby syndrome learning and recall, visuospatial processing and language present in individuals with FASD (Riley and McGee, 2005; Norman et al., 2009; Lebel et al., 2011). Supportive care should include an appropriate stimulating and nurturing environment. Many children with fetal alcohol syndrome will need learning support in school. To diagnose fetal alcohol syndrome, doctors look for unusual facial features, lower-than-average height and weight, small head size, problems with attention and hyperactivity, and poor coordination. They also try to find out whether the mother drank while they were pregnant and if so, how much.

• It may be difficult to diagnose FASDs because there’s no single test to make a diagnosis.
• Upon activation, microglia become rod-like or amoeboid, with a multinucleated or epithelioid appearance (Benarroch, 2013).
• Teratogens can interfere with a fetus’s growth and development, particularly that of the central nervous system (CNS), which includes the brain and spinal cord.
• More recently, neonatal alcohol exposure via vapor inhalation has been shown to increase GFAP expression in the cerebellum and hippocampus during the alcohol-withdrawal period (Topper et al., 2015).
• The outlook will be individual for each child, what type of FASD they have, and what treatments/therapies they have access to.
• There is no known safe level of alcohol consumption during pregnancy.