title: Neurobehavioral effects of alcohol in AMPA receptor subunit (GluR1) deficient mice.
abstract: Of the ionotropic glutamatergic receptors, the NMDA receptor is clearly implicated in the acute and chronic effects of ethanol; however, the role of the AMPA receptor in mediating the effects of ethanol in vivo is as yet unclear. Using mice deficient in the AMPA receptor subunit GluR1 (GluR1-/- mice), we investigated whether the AMPA receptor had a significant role in mediating the effects of ethanol. GluR1-/- mice showed greater locomotor activity in a novel environment, but by the fifth day of repeated testing their activity was the same as that of wild-type mice. In contrast to their enhanced locomotor activity, on an accelerating rotarod GluR1-/- mice performed consistently worse than wild-types. With regard to the effects of ethanol on motor responses, GluR1-/- mice did not differ significantly from wild-type mice in ethanol's sedative or incoordinating effects. However, the GluR1-/- mice were insensitive to the hypothermic effects of a hypnotic dose of ethanol in contrast to wild-types; this effect was dissociable from the hypnotic effects of ethanol. Further, tolerance to ethanol developed equally for GluR1-/- mice versus wild-type mice. In terms of alcohol drinking behavior, compared to wild-types, GluR1-/- mice differed neither in the acquisition of voluntary ethanol consumption nor in stress-induced ethanol drinking, nor in the expression of an alcohol deprivation effect (ADE) which is used as a model of relapse-like drinking behavior. In summary, although the loss of a hypothermic effect of ethanol in GluR1-/- mice indicates a critical role for the AMPA receptors in this effect, the GluR1 subunit of the AMPA receptor does not seem to play a critical role in the etiology of alcohol dependence. However, changes observed in activity patterns may be related to the putative role of AMPA receptors in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychopharmacology, University of Heidelberg, Central Institute of Mental Health (CIMH), J5, 68159, Mannheim, Germany.
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Cowen
authors.forename: K-C
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Schroff
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Gass
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sprengel
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Spanagel
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000523:psychology; D000818:Animals; D000431:Ethanol / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D018091:Receptors, AMPA / Q000172:deficiency* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol; D018091:Receptors, AMPA