Simultaneous changes in striatal dopamine, serotonin, and metabolites after withdrawal seizures in rats from dependence on alcohol.
Ethanol dependence was achieved in male, Long-Evans rats after 8 days on a balanced liquid diet that supplied 4.5% ethanol. After 1-h access to a solution of 10% ethanol (95%)/5% sucrose, the rats were deprived of food, water, and ethanol for 9 h. Following 30-s key jingling, about 80% of the animals exposed to ethanol experienced tonic-clonic seizures. Neurochemical analyses of striatal tissues revealed a significant (p < 0.05) increase in dopamine (DA) and a significant decrease in serotonin (5-HT) in the ethanol-exposed rats that had seizures compared to control rats. Homovanillic acid concentrations of the ethanol-treated rats with seizures were significantly higher than the levels found in ethanol-treated animals that had experienced no seizures. Daily average ethanol intake of the rats that had seizures vs. those that did not was almost the same at 16 g/kg/day. The findings indicate that rats experiencing ethanol withdrawal-induced seizures manifest opposite alterations in dopaminergic and serotoninergic activity compared to controls. The present results do not reveal if the striatal changes are caused by ethanol rather than by the seizures.
Mirovsky
Y
Y
Department of Nutritional Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903, USA.
Wagner
G C
GC
Sekowski
A
A
Goldberg
M
M
Fisher
H
H
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D000428:Alcohol Drinking; D000437:Alcoholism; D000818:Animals; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000378:metabolism*; D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism*; D000431:Ethanol / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D012640:Seizures / Q000378:metabolism*; D012701:Serotonin / Q000378:metabolism*; D013375:Substance Withdrawal Syndrome / Q000378:metabolism*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders
D012701:Serotonin; D000431:Ethanol; D004298:Dopamine