Intraventricular ethanol and ethanol intake: a behavioral and radiographic study.
Ethanol (10% w/v) was infused intraventricularly at a rate of 11 mul/hr, delivered over 50 sec every 10 min for 10 days into 5 Sprague-Dawley and 5 Wistar rats. Thereafter, preference testing with ascending concentrations of alcohol solutions vs . water vs. food gave no significant differences between treated and sham-operated controls, in contradiction to previously reported increases in alcohol consumption. Ethanol's rate of elimination from the ventricle and its pattern of diffusion into the brain were determined using radioactive ethanol: elimination from the brain is rapid with a half-like of 24 to 35 sec, and the amount diffused throughtout the brain small, with a maximal concentration in any one section of 0.004% (such a concentration is at least 20 times less than would result from a moderately intoxicating parenteral dose of ethanol). The character of the elimination and the lack of effect on alcohol intake found here indicate that intraventricularly administered ethanol is a technique with no usefulness in elucidating the processes affecting alcohol addiction.
D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D000818:Animals; D001923:Brain Chemistry / Q000187:drug effects; D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D002552:Cerebral Ventricles; D000431:Ethanol / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D007267:Injections; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats
D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D000431:Ethanol