Environmental enrichment restores ethanol-induced bdnf alterations in adolescent mice, but does not alter ethanol induced conditioned place preference

PAUTASSI R.M.; RUEDA, A; RAE, M. ; CAMARINI R

Valencia

Congreso; 15t Meeting of the European Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism; 2015

European Society for Biomedical Research on Alcoholism

Environmental enrichment (EE) has been proposed as an alternative,non-pharmacological treatment to ameliorate drug-induced reinforcement.There is, however, a scarcity of studies assessing the effects of EEon ethanol-induced reinforcement and age-related differences in thisphenomenon. Moreover, the mechanisms underlying the effects ofEE remain mostly unidentified. We analyzed, in adolescent andadult Swiss mice, the modulatory influence of EE on ethanol-inducedconditioned place preference (CPP) and measured, at termination oftesting, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels in the prefrontalcortex (PFC). Animals remained under EE or standard housingconditions (SC) 15 days before and throughout the course of CPPtraining, which consisted of one habituation session, eight conditioningsessions, and two test (i.e., extinction) sessions. Ethanol (2.0 g/kg,i.p., given every other day across the eight conditioning sessions) inducedsignificant CPP, yet this conditioned preference was fairly similarin adult and adolescent animals, and was not affected by therearing conditions. Adolescent, but not adult, mice given ethanolchronically during the CPP and kept under SC conditions exhibiteda significant reduction in BDNF levels. Exposure to EE restored thisage-related effect of ethanol. These results indicate that EE mayserve to partially ameliorate the consequences of chronic ethanol exposureduring adolescence. Although ethanol-induced CPP was insensitiveto the rearing conditions, EE restored the ethanol-inducedalterations found in the PFC.