We have examined the influence of ethanol on cholinergic and catecholaminergic neuronal expression in the chick embryonic brain using choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) and tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) activities as respective neuronal markers. Ethanol (5-20 mg/50 microliters/day), administered to embryos in ovo from day 1 to 3 of development produced a dose-dependent decrease in ChAT activity while TH activity exhibited a dose-dependent increase when embryos were sacrificed on embryonic day 8. The optimal neurotoxic dose of ethanol following this paradigm was 15 mg/day and the LD50 was 17.5 mg/day for the 3 days. Subsequently, embryos were administered ethanol (15 mg) either alone or concomitantly with growth hormone-releasing hormone (GH-RH; 100 ng/50 microliters/day). Previous studies from this laboratory have demonstrated both potent cholinotropic and catecholaminotropic effects for this neuropeptide, results confirmed in this study. Co-administration of ethanol and GH-RH resulted in a significant increase in ChAT activity as compared to both saline- and ethanol-treated controls when examined on day 8 of embryonic growth. No additive effect was observed in TH activity following co-administration of ethanol and GH-RH. The findings from this study are interpreted to mean that GH-RH represents a potent secondary signal to undifferentiated neuroblasts which may lead to a restoration of the cholinergic neuronal population following neurotoxic insult by ethanol.