ArticlesEthanol Consumption by C57BL/6 Mice: Influence of Gender and Procedural Variables
Section snippets
Experiment 1. ethanol consumption during free and limited access (60 min) with no food or water deprivation
In this experiment, ethanol consumption was determined when it was continuously available (24-h or during the 12-h high-activity dark period) or was limited to 60-min periods during the light (inactive) or the dark (active) circadian phases with food and water available ad lib. Both the free and the limited access procedures have been used previously to evaluate ethanol consumption by C57 mice; however, the latter procedure has been used only for male mice. Thus, this experiment replicates
Experiment 2. ethanol consumption by food deprived male and female mice during 30-min limited-access periods
In this experiment, the influence of thirst and hunger motivation on ethanol consumption by the two sexes was assessed. Food deprivation increases the self-administration of most abused drugs, including ethanol 5, 6, 9. Ethanol consumption is also greater during food ingestion than at other times for male mice (11) and rats (35), and responding for ethanol reward is greater if mice are tested post- rather than preprandially 13, 14. These studies indicate that motivational states related to
General discussion
The present study contributes to the characterization of the C57 murine model of alcohol use or abuse by establishing some variables which influence sex differences in ethanol consumption. The study confirms previous reports that C57 mice will consume large quantities of continuously available ethanol without food or water deprivation, and without masking its taste with sweeteners 3, 7, 20, 22, 29, 38. The study also extends previous studies by establishing that female, as well as male, C57
Acknowledgements
This study was supported by Grants AA10761 and AA07474 awarded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The authors thank Marilyn Ruotolo for assistance with manuscript preparation.
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