Thermal antinociceptive responses to alcohol in DBA/2J and C57BL/6J inbred male and female mouse strains

Alyssa White; Martial Caillaud; Moriah Carper; Justin Poklis; Michael F Miles; M Imad Damaj

doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2022.114087

Thermal antinociceptive responses to alcohol in DBA/2J and C57BL/6J inbred male and female mouse strains

Behav Brain Res. 2023 Jan 5:436:114087. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2022.114087. Epub 2022 Aug 31.

Authors

Alyssa White¹, Martial Caillaud¹, Moriah Carper¹, Justin Poklis¹, Michael F Miles¹, M Imad Damaj²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Translational Research Initiative for Pain and Neuropathy, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA.
² Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology and Translational Research Initiative for Pain and Neuropathy, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA; Translational Research Initiative for Pain and Neuropathy, Virginia Commonwealth University, USA. Electronic address: m.damaj@vcuhealth.org.

Abstract

Background: The phenomenon of alcohol analgesia and tolerance can facilitate misuse and lead to the development of alcohol use disorder (AUD). Numerous alcohol-induced behaviors are genetically influenced; however, it is unknown if alcohol analgesia has a genetic contribution. Rodent studies have shown that alcohol responses differ vastly between two widely studied inbred strains of mice, C57BL/6 J (B6) and DBA/2 J (D2). Here, we used B6 and D2 mice as an initial behavioral genetic analysis of acute alcohol-induced antinociception.

Methods: The antinociceptive effect of orally-administered alcohol was characterized using the hot plate test in B6 and D2 mice of both sexes. Using the opioid receptor antagonist naloxone, the involvement of the opioid system was assessed. Locomotor activity and blood alcohol concentrations were also measured. Ovariectomized mice were used to evaluate the influence of ovarian sex hormones on alcohol-induced antinociception.

Results: Alcohol induced an antinociceptive effect in B6 and D2 male mice in a time- and dose-dependent manner. In addition, D2 male mice were more sensitive to the antinociceptive effect of alcohol than B6 male mice. However, locomotion is not impeded by the tested doses of alcohol in B6 mice. Female D2 and B6 mice failed to show significant antinociceptive effects in alcohol dose-response studies. In addition, alcohol-induced antinociception was still not evident in ovariectomized female mice. Male mice of both strains developed tolerance to this effect after repeated administration of alcohol. Strain differences were found in blood alcohol concentration. Finally, no difference was found in the blockade of alcohol antinociception by 2 mg/kg naloxone.

Conclusion: Our results indicate that the antinociceptive effects of alcohol in the hot plate test are influenced by strain and sex. These findings support further genetic analysis of alcohol-induced antinociception to identify operative mechanisms and better assess the contribution of this phenotype to AUD.

Keywords: Antinociception; Genotype; Hot plate; Mice; Sex; Tolerance.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Alcoholism*
Analgesics, Opioid
Animals
Blood Alcohol Content*
Ethanol / pharmacology
Female
Male
Mice
Mice, Inbred C57BL
Mice, Inbred DBA
Naloxone / pharmacology
Narcotic Antagonists / pharmacology
Pain / drug therapy

Substances

Analgesics, Opioid
Blood Alcohol Content
Narcotic Antagonists
Naloxone
Ethanol

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances

Grants and funding