title: Naltrexone effects on ethanol reward and discrimination in C57BL/6 mice.
abstract: The effects of the opioid antagonist, naltrexone, on operant responding for oral ethanol reward delivered on a fixed-ratio schedule, and on the discriminative stimulus properties of intraperitoneally injected ethanol, was examined in two separate experiments. The ages, food/water motivational conditions, and naltrexone doses for the two experiments were similar to allow a direct comparison of naltrexone effects on the two measures. Male food-deprived C57BL/6 mice responded for ethanol during either preprandial (low thirst, high hunger motivation) or postprandial (high thirst, low hunger motivation tests). The reinforcing value of ethanol relative to water was greater during the preprandial tests; however, the amounts of ethanol consumed was greater during the postprandial tests, with some mice becoming unconscious during the 15-min test session. Naltrexone produced dose-responsive reductions in responding for ethanol under either testing condition. During postprandial tests, naltrexone reduced responding for ethanol reward at a dose (1.25 mg/kg) that had little effect on responding for water reward, suggesting some selectivity for ethanol reward. In addition, doses of naltrexone that reduced responding for ethanol rewards did not alter the discrimination of ethanol (g/kg) in an operant discrimination task, but did reduce the total number of responses made during these tests. Thus, under similar motivational and dosing conditions, the opiate antagonist attenuated the reinforcing, but not the discriminative properties of ethanol, suggesting that the latter is mediated by either different or additional neural mechanisms in C57BL/6 mice.
authors: Alcohol Research Center, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston 29425, USA. middauld@musc.edu
authors: L D
authors: LD
authors: Middaugh
authors: B M
authors: BM
authors: Kelley
authors: E R
authors: ER
authors: Cuison
authors: C H
authors: CH
authors: Groseclose
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000187:drug effects*; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000187:drug effects*; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D000431:Ethanol / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005508:Food Deprivation; D005794:Generalization, Response / Q000187:drug effects; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic / Q000187:drug effects; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009271:Naltrexone / Q000494:pharmacology*; D009292:Narcotic Antagonists / Q000494:pharmacology*; D012055:Reinforcement Schedule; D012201:Reward
chemical_list: D009292:Narcotic Antagonists; D000431:Ethanol; D009271:Naltrexone