Elsevier

Life Sciences

Volume 15, Issue 3, 1 August 1974, Pages 415-425
Life Sciences

Alcohol withdrawal reactions and reserpine effects in inbred strains of mice

https://doi.org/10.1016/0024-3205(74)90340-3Get rights and content

Abstract

Mice of different inbred strains were treated with ethanol for 3 days, by inhalation of alcohol vapor and daily injections of pyrazole. Within strains, “alcohol-adapted” mice were compared with controls. The alcohol-adapted mice received 3.8% (w/v) alcohol in their drinking water for one week and 7.5% alcohol for the next 16 or 19 weeks. During the inhalation period, C57BL mice had lower blood alcohol levels than DBA mice, and alcohol-adapted mice had slightly lower blood levels than controls. On withdrawal the mice were examined repeatedly for convulsions elicited by handling, a measure of the intensity of withdrawal reactions. The withdrawal scores of C57BL mice were significantly lower than those of DBA, BALB or Swiss-Webster mice, more so than could be accounted for by the difference in blood alcohol levels. Mice of 3 strains were treated with reserpine and observed for behavioral effects, including convulsions on handling. Strain differences in reserpine effects closely paralleled the strain differences in alcohol withdrawal seizures.

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    Citation Excerpt :

    D2 mice exhibited a robust withdrawal syndrome, as indexed by HIC scores, whereas B6 mice showed very little response. These results are consistent with previous reports indicating that D2 mice show substantially greater ethanol withdrawal convulsions than B6 do [7,16]. For the group of mice used for HIC scoring (above), the BEC values (mean±S.E.M.) for the ethanol-treated B6 and D2 mice were 1.26±0.08 and 1.66±0.08 mg/ml, respectively.

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This work was supported by grants from the Medical Advisory Committee of the United States Brewers Association and from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (grant no. AA0498).

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