Behavioral and neural characteristics of rats short-term selected for high- or low-ethanol drinking during adolescence

PAUTASSI R.M.; FERNANDEZ M.; CHINER, F.; FERREYRA, A.

Puerto Varas

Congreso; Annual meeting of the Sociedad de Farmacología de Chile (SOFARCHI); 2017

Sociedad de Farmacología de Chile (SOFARCHI)

Rodent strains selectively bred for high or low ethanol intake are valuable animal models. To our knowledge, a selective breeding program has not been performed for low and high levels of ethanol drinking during adolescence. Such a program would facilitate analyses of the mechanisms by which genes increase the likelihood of alcohol use disorders, and may reveal the putative relationship between motivational sensitivity to ethanol and ethanol drinking, or detect preexisting traits that predispose for high ethanol drinking. We short-term produced rat lines selected for high (STDRHI) or low (STDRLO) ethanol consumption during adolescence, and assessed them in several behavioral and neural assays. STDRHI adolescent rats exhibited greater anxiety response in the light-dark and open field tests, and greater baseline Fos immunoreactivity (ir) in central, basolateral and medial amygdaloid nucleus (Bla, Cem and Me, respectively); nucleus accumbens core (AcbC) and ventral tegmental area (VTA). STDRLO, but not STDRHI, rats exhibit ethanol-induced Fos-ir in Cem, yet the inverse pattern was found in Me. Moreover, STRDHI rats exhibited a blunted response to the conditioned aversive effects of ethanol. These results suggest that selection pressure for high ethanol intake during adolescence resulted in rats exhibiting: (a) reduced and enhanced response to ethanol?s aversive andstimulant effects, respectively; (b) and anxiety-prone phenotype and (c), an altered pattern of neural response to ethanol.