Vol. 280, Issue 2, 739-746, 1997

Differential Development and Characterization of Rapid Acute Neuronal Tolerance to the Depressant Effects of Ethanol on Cerebellar Purkinje Neurons of Low-alcohol-sensitive and High-alcohol-sensitive Rats¹

B. J. Pearson, D. P. Donatelli, R. K. Freund and M. R. Palmer

Department of Pharmacology, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, Colorado

Rapid acute neuronal tolerance (RANT) to the depressant effects of ethanol (EtOH) is a desensitization of EtOH-induced depression of neuronal firing that develops over the first 5 to 7 min of EtOH exposure. This phenomenon has been hypothesized to play a role in acute behavioral insensitivity to EtOH and is expressed by cerebellar Purkinje neurons in animals selectively bred for insensitivity to EtOH-induced ataxia, such as low-alcohol-sensitive (LAS) rats and short-sleep mice. Purkinje neurons of animals bred for high sensitivity to EtOH-induced behavioral ataxia, such as high-alcohol-sensitive (HAS) rats and long-sleep mice, only infrequently express such acute tolerance to EtOH-induced depression of neuronal activity. However, because higher EtOH doses are required to depress Purkinje neuron activity in LAS rats than in HAS rats, it was not known whether the higher EtOH doses that depress LAS neurons would also induce RANT to EtOH in HAS rats, which were generally not exposed to such high EtOH doses in previous studies. Furthermore, the conditions for development and maintenance of RANT to EtOH had not been characterized. We found that RANT to EtOH-induced depression of cerebellar neurons principally developed within 5 min of EtOH application and recovered within 20 min of the last EtOH exposure and that neurons in HAS rats did not develop acute tolerance to the higher EtOH doses that were effective in LAS rats. We conclude that this rapid tolerance contributes to the acute EtOH sensitivity difference between LAS and HAS rats.