Chunk #41 — 4. Selectively bred high alcohol-consuming rat lines and their phenotypic characteristics — 4.6. Selectively bred rat lines and some family history positive correlates
The above survey of the literature concerning neurobehavioral (Table 2) and neurobiological (Table 3) phenotypes found in these selectively bred high vs. low alcohol-consuming rat lines indicates that many phenotypes present in alcohol abusing or dependent individuals are also present in these rat lines. For example, similar to the animal literature, clinical studies of human subjects with a family history of alcoholism, suggest that there is an association between a low level of responsivity to ethanol and risk for the development of alcoholism (Crabbe et al., 2010; Schuckit, 1994, 2009). Thus, after an ethanol challenge young adult family history positive (FHP for alcoholism) males (Schuckit, 1985; Schuckit and Gold, 1988) and females (Eng et al., 2005; Lex et al., 1988) display less body sway than family history negative (FHN) controls. An individual’s level of response (low vs. high) to ethanol also influences the expression of brain regional activation following an acute ethanol challenge (Trim et al., 2010). Moreover, an individual’s level of response to ethanol is directly associated with whether they carry the long- vs. short-allelle for the 5-HT transporter
