Name: a method for evaluating the reinforcing properties of ethanol in rats without water deprivation, saccharin fading or extended access training
Uploaded: 2017-01-29T13:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about A Method for Evaluating the Reinforcing Properties of Ethanol in Rats without Water Deprivation, Saccharin Fading or Extended Access Training at JoVE.com

This work was supported by the Swedish Research Council.

All procedures are conducted in accordance with the NIH Guide for Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.
1. Animal Care and Housing
<ol>
	<li>Upon arrival in the colony, house male Wistar rats weighing 200 - 225 g at arrival in pairs in a temperature (21 &#176;C) and humidity-controlled environment with a reversed 12 h light-dark cycle. 
	Note: Depending on the rationale of the experiments, rats may be single-housed.</li>
	<li>Allow the rats to acclimate to the vivarium and the light cycle for at least one wee...

<ol>
	<li>Koob, G. F., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Animal+models+of+motivation+for+drinking+in+rodents+with+a+focus+on+opioid+receptor+neuropharmacology.+Recent+developments+in+alcoholism+:+an+official+publication.">Animal models of motivation for drinking in rodents with a focus on opioid receptor neuropharmacology. Recent developments in alcoholism : an official publication.</a> of the American Medical Society on Alcoholism, the Research Society on Alcoholism, and the National Council on Alcoholism. 16, 263-281 (2003).</li><li>Samson, H. 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V., Ron, D. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Regulation+of+operant+oral+ethanol+self-administration:+a+dose-response+curve+study+in+rats.">Regulation of operant oral ethanol self-administration: a dose-response curve study in rats.</a> Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research. 35, 116-125 (2011).</li><li>Augier, E., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Wistar+rats+acquire+and+maintain+self-administration+of+20+%+ethanol+without+water+deprivation,+saccharin/sucrose+fading,+or+extended+access+training.">Wistar rats acquire and maintain self-administration of 20 % ethanol without water deprivation, saccharin/sucrose fading, or extended access training.</a> Psychopharmacology. , (2014).</li><li>Macchia, T., et al. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Ethanol+in+biological+fluids:+headspace+GC+measurement.">Ethanol in biological fluids: headspace GC measurement.</a> Journal of analytical toxicology. 19, 241-246 (1995).</li><li>Hodos, W. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Progressive+ratio+as+a+measure+of+reward+strength.">Progressive ratio as a measure of reward strength.</a> Science. 134, 943-944 (1961).</li><li>Williams, K. 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A., Weiss, F. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=PubMed&cmd=Search&doptcmdl=Citation&defaultField=Title+Word&term=Suppression+of+ethanol-reinforced+behavior+by+naltrexone+is+associated+with+attenuation+of+the+ethanol-induced+increase+in+dialysate+dopamine+levels+in+the+nucleus+accumbens.">Suppression of ethanol-reinforced behavior by naltrexone is associated with attenuation of the ethanol-induced increase in dialysate dopamine levels in the nucleus accumbens.</a> The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 18, 10663-10671 (1998).</li><li>Biggs, T. A., Myers, R. 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With this protocol, we are presenting a new method to acquire and maintain stable oral self-administration of 20% ethanol in rats that, contrary to classic models of ethanol self-administration, does not require the use of water deprivation, extended access training, or saccharin/sucrose fading12. Furthermore, naltrexone, a currently FDA-approved medication for alcohol dependence, successfully decreases alcohol self-administration and the motivation to consume alcohol of Wistar rats trained with this protocol....

The development of animal models to study the reinforcing effects of drugs has proven an important tool to study human drug addiction. More specifically, operant self-administration is a widely used behavioral model that is one of the most effective means for assessing the positive reinforcing effects of an orally consumed ethanol solution. An early issue with developing such a model was the primary aversive taste of high concentrations of ethanol for most rodents, a phenomenon that is also shared in humans with little or no experience with alcohol1. A standard protocol to overcome this barrier requires water deprivation and/or saccharin or sucrose fading for the acquisition and maintenance of self-administration. However, these two approaches are not advantageous. They require long periods of training to simply initiate responding for ethanol and obtain a relative success rate of acquisition. The use of sweeteners also introduces a potential bias in the interpretation of the self-administration data. These limitations don&#39;t apply to the following protocol.
Briefly, Samson and colleagues2 have shown that dissolving ethanol in a sweet solution of 20% sucrose and then fading out the sweetness over 4 weeks of training is required to initiate responding for 10% ethanol in water. Furthermore, reliable ethanol intake is usually achieved in 6 to 8 weeks1-3. This approach is highly problematic. First, it requires extended periods of training before investigators can begin to measure ethanol self-administration. In contrast, intravenous self-administration of cocaine or heroin requires 0 - 1 days of pre-drug training on a food-delivering lever in food restricted animals, and stable responding for drug is often achieved in 10 - 12 days4,5. Another limitation of this method is the fact that saccharin and sucrose are highly rewarding to rats and elicit brain activation patterns similar to drugs of abuse, thus introducing the potential for confounds in ethanol self-administration studies6-9. Finally, rats acquiring self-administration of an ethanol solution using this method show variability in acquisition and response rate1,10, with a substantial proportion of rats consistently excluded from experiments due to unsuccessful acquisition and/or insufficient response rate.
By contrast, with this protocol, we present a simple yet efficient method for acquisition and maintenance of oral self-administration of a 20% ethanol in water solution that does not necessitate water deprivation, sucrose/saccharin fading or extended access training. A recent investigation found that self-administration for oral ethanol displays an inverted U shaped dose response curve with highest ethanol intake during self-administration at a 20% ethanol concentration, thus providing a rationale for selecting 20% ethanol solution in our experimental design11.

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a method for evaluating the reinforcing properties of ethanol in rats without water deprivation, saccharin fading or extended access training

Operant oral self-administration methods are commonly used to study the reinforcing properties of ethanol in animals. However, the standard methods require saccharin/sucrose fading, water deprivation and/or extended training to initiate operant responding in rats. This paper describes a novel and efficient method to quickly initiate operant responding for ethanol that is convenient for experimenters and does not require water deprivation or saccharin/sucrose fading, thus eliminating the potential confound of using sweeteners in ethanol operant self-administration studies. With this method, Wistar rats typically acquire and maintain self-administration of a 20% ethanol solution in less than two weeks of training. Furthermore, blood ethanol concentrations and rewards are positively correlated for a 30 min self-administration session. Moreover, naltrexone, an FDA-approved medication for alcohol dependence that has been shown to suppress ethanol self-administration in rodents, dose-dependently decreases alcohol intake and motivation to consume alcohol for rats self-administering 20% ethanol, thus validating the use of this new method to study the reinforcing properties of alcohol in rats.

Figure 1 shows the representative self-administration behavior of operant- and drug-naive Wistar rats (eight different cohorts amounting to a total of 239 rats) trained on a FR1 schedule to self-administer 20% ethanol without water deprivation or saccharin/sucrose fading during 30-minute sessions. With this protocol, rats initiate lever pressing to obtain an ethanol reward very quickly, already obtaining more than 10 rewards during the first sessions (Figure 1A</s...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about A Method for Evaluating the Reinforcing Properties of Ethanol in Rats without Water Deprivation, Saccharin Fading or Extended Access Training at JoVE.com

A Method for Evaluating the Reinforcing Properties of Ethanol in Rats without Water Deprivation, Saccharin Fading or Extended Access Training

This protocol describes a novel and efficient method to quickly initiate operant responding for ethanol in rats that, contrary to standard methods, does not require water deprivation or saccharin/sucrose fading to initiate responding.

Operant oral self-administration methods are commonly used to study the reinforcing properties of ethanol in animals. However, the standard methods ...

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Feeding difficulties and feeding disorders are a commonly occurring problem for young children, particularly children with developmental delays including ...

Pavlovian Conditioned Approach Training in Rats

Cues that are contingently paired with unconditioned, rewarding stimuli can acquire rewarding properties themselves through a process known as the ...

The Rodent Psychomotor Vigilance Test (rPVT): A Method for Assessing Neurobehavioral Performance in Rats and Mice

The Rodent Psychomotor Vigilance Test rPVT: A Method for Assessing Neurobehavioral Performance in Rats and Mice

The human Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) is a widely used procedure for measuring changes in fatigue and sustained attention. The present article ...

The Knob Supination Task: A Semi-automated Method for Assessing Forelimb Function in Rats

Tasks that accurately measure dexterity in animal models are critical to understand hand function. Current rat behavioral tasks that measure dexterity ...

A New Method for Inducing a Depression-Like Behavior in Rats

Contagious depression is a phenomenon that is yet to be fully recognized and this stems from insufficient material on the subject. At the moment, there is ...