Melatonin and chronic ethanol consumption: effects on the offspring liver and kidney

The aim of this research was to assess whether the administration of melatonin during pregnancy and lactation can mitigate alcohol-induced liver and kidney damage in the offspring. Three groups were formed with the offspring of 30 albino Wistar rats from the UFRPE bioterium: control group – Offspring of rats that did not consume alcohol; alcohol group – Offspring of rats that consumed alcohol; alcohol+mel group – Offspring of rats that consumed alcohol and received melatonin. The female rats received 3 g/Kg of alcohol and 0.8 mg/Kg of melatonin during the gestational and lactation period. The rat pups were euthanized at 30 days of age. The collected organs underwent histological procedures for morphometric, histopathological and statistical analyses. In the liver of the alcohol group, congestion in the portal and centrolobular veins, steatosis, and alterations in the sizes of hepatic parenchyma were observed, which were not present in the alcohol+mel and control groups. In the alcohol group, the kidneys also showed congestion in the cortical area, without the subcapsular space and with altered glomerulus size, on the other hand, the group treated with melatonin did not present alterations in these organs. The statistical analyses of the weights and lengths of the alcohol+mel group also did not reveal any significant alterations when compared to the group exposed only to alcohol. Thus, melatonin acted positively, interfering and mitigating the harmful effects that ethanol had on the liver, kidneys, weight and length of offspring whose mothers were subjected to chronic alcohol consumption.