To determine if inflammatory activation by LPS might produce a long-lasting increase in alcohol consumption, we gave mice one or two injections of LPS, waited one week (to allow normalization of body weight and water intake following the sickness response), then began tests of alcohol consumption. Because alcohol drinking in mice is highly dependent on genetic background, we used several different strains of mice with different levels of alcohol consumption. We also tested phenotypes that might be related to alcohol consumption or reward: conditioned place preference (CPP), conditioned taste aversion (CTA), firing activity of midbrain dopamine neurons, consumption of saccharin and quinine, and olfactory detection of ethanol.
