Persistence of tolerance in the P line of alcohol-preferring rats does not require performance while intoxicated.
Persistence of tolerance was measured seven days after a single ethanol injection (2.5 g/kg b. wt.) in the alcohol-preferring P line of rats with and without testing in a shock-motivated jump task during the initial ethanol exposure. P rats were trained to jump 50 cm to avoid shock and were assigned to one of three groups. On day 0, group E/J (n = 8) was injected with ethanol and tested on the jump task until recovery to criterion (37.5 cm), while group S/J (n = 21) was injected with saline and was tested yoked to an E/J rat. Rats in the E/NJ group (n = 19) received ethanol but were not tested on day 0. Seven days later, all rats received 2.5 g ethanol/kg and were tested to criterion. Recovery times on day 7 were significantly longer (p less than 0.05) for rats in the S/J group (169 +/- 7 min) than for the E/J (141 +/- 11 min) and E/NJ (145 +/- 6 min) rats. Blood ethanol concentrations at recovery for the E/NJ group were higher than the S/J group on day 7 and higher than the E/J group on day 0 (p less than 0.05). The results indicate that the persistence of tolerance manifested by the P rats is an inherited behavioral trait that requires only ethanol exposure.
Murphy
J M
JM
Department of Psychology, Purdue School of Science, Indianapolis, IN.
Gatto
G J
GJ
McBride
W J
WJ
Lumeng
L
L
Li
T K
TK
D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000502:physiology*; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000235:genetics; D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000187:drug effects*; D004361:Drug Tolerance; D000431:Ethanol / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011922:Rats, Mutant Strains
D000431:Ethanol