title: Brain ethanol levels after voluntary ethanol drinking in AA and Wistar rats.
abstract: Brain ethanol was monitored in the nucleus accumbens with one minute microdialysis and headspace gas chromatography in male Wistar and alcohol preferring AA (Alko Alcohol) rats after voluntary limited access consumption without food restriction. The rats drank 0.93 +/- 0.14 (Wistar) and 0.73 +/- 0.07 g/kg (AA), with a resulting mean maximal brain ethanol level of 15.9 mM and 14.1 mM, respectively. Maximum brain ethanol levels for individual AA rats were in the range 9.4-33.6 mM, median 15.5 mM and for the individual Wistar rats in the range 2.5-35.2 mM, median 17.8 mM. There was a significant but not perfect correlation between the amount ethanol drunk and the resulting ethanol level in the nucleus accumbens, probably because of the rats not being food deprived before the experiment. The results show that rats drink pharmacologically meaningful doses in a voluntary limited access situation and that blood samples can give us a hint about the level attained in the brain, but to know the early brain concentration after drinking, microdialysis is an excellent tool.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Systematics, University of Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nurmi
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kiianmaa
authors.forename: J D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Sinclair
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D000818:Animals; D001923:Brain Chemistry / Q000187:drug effects*; D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D000431:Ethanol / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D017551:Microdialysis; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000737:chemistry / Q000187:drug effects; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
chemical_list: D002492:Central Nervous System Depressants; D000431:Ethanol