The relationship between environmental and genetic factors in the regulation of alcohol consumption, while often cited as important, are not well understood. While a number of studies have examined the effects of various environmental factors on alcohol consumption, only a few of these have attempted to determine how these factors might interact with genetic factors. During the last grant period, we have found that several behavioral factors can impact ethanol consumption and that several of these factors interact with each other. Depending on the type of introduction (initiation) to alcohol, the amount, concentration, and cost of the ethanol and time/day it is available all effect intake. The most important finding has been that intake appears to be mostly regulated by the number of discrete drinking bouts which occur during a day and not by the size of these individual bouts. This appears true for both nonselected rats as well as for both the Indiana P and NP rat. The proposed studies will expand on these studies by examining the effects of initiation and an environmental variable upon drinking patterns of several lines of rats. By using the same behavioral procedure, in the same laboratory across several lines of selectively bred animals who differ in their alcohol preference, we hope to be able to address the question of the interaction between these genetic selections and environmental factors which are known to impact ethanol consumption. An additional set of studies is proposed to continue to explore added models of drinking initiation, with the goal of providing other models of alcohol self-administration which may better resemble excessive drinking patterns.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
Type
Method to Extend Research in Time (MERIT) Award (R37)
Project #
5R37AA006845-17
Application #
6509137
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (NSS)
Program Officer
Egli, Mark
Project Start
1993-01-01
Project End
2004-02-29
Budget Start
2002-03-01
Budget End
2003-02-28
Support Year
17
Fiscal Year
2002
Total Cost
$242,331
Indirect Cost
Name
Wake Forest University Health Sciences
Department
Physiology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
937727907
City
Winston-Salem
State
NC
Country
United States
Zip Code
27157
Samson, Herman H; Cunningham, Christopher L; Czachowski, Cristine L et al. (2004) Devaluation of ethanol reinforcement. Alcohol 32:203-12
Samson, Herman H; Chappell, Ann M (2004) Effects of raclopride in the core of the nucleus accumbens on ethanol seeking and consumption: the use of extinction trials to measure seeking. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 28:544-9
Czachowski, Cristine L; Legg, Brooke H; Samson, Herman H (2003) Assessment of sucrose and ethanol reinforcement: the across-session breakpoint procedure. Physiol Behav 78:51-9
Samson, Herman H; Chappell, Ann (2003) Dopaminergic involvement in medial prefrontal cortex and core of the nucleus accumbens in the regulation of ethanol self-administration: a dual-site microinjection study in the rat. Physiol Behav 79:581-90
Samson, Herman H; Czachowski, Cristine L; Chappell, Ann et al. (2003) Measuring the appetitive strength of ethanol: use of an extinction trial procedure. Alcohol 31:77-86
Samson, Herman H; Czachowski, Cristine L (2003) Behavioral measures of alcohol self-administration and intake control: rodent models. Int Rev Neurobiol 54:107-43
Sharpe, Amanda L; Samson, Herman H (2003) Ethanol and sucrose self-administration components: effects of drinking history. Alcohol 29:31-8
Samson, Herman H; Chappell, Ann (2003) Failure of a schedule-induction procedure to increase ethanol intake in an established limited-access self-administration condition. Alcohol 31:161-5
Sharpe, Amanda L; Samson, Herman H (2002) Repeated nicotine injections decrease operant ethanol self-administration. Alcohol 28:1-7
Czachowski, Cristine L; Santini, Lindsay A; Legg, Brooke H et al. (2002) Separate measures of ethanol seeking and drinking in the rat: effects of remoxipride. Alcohol 28:39-46

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