Chunk #23 — 4. Selectively bred high alcohol-consuming rat lines and their phenotypic characteristics — 4.2. Alcohol-preferring and alcohol-nonpreferring rats
free-choice ethanol drinking, as indicated by physical signs of withdrawal when access is terminated (Kampov-Polevoy et al., 2000; Waller et al., 1982). In addition, P rats display a robust ADE (Rodd et al., 2003; Rodd-Henricks et al., 2000c, 2001), a characteristic of relapse drinking. With regard to initial sensitivity to ethanol’s effects, P rats are less sensitive to the ataxic (Bell et al., 2001) and hypothermic (Stewart et al., 1992) effects of ethanol, compared with NP rats; and develop tolerance quicker than NP rats to the ataxic (Bell et al., 2001) and hypnotic (Kurtz et al., 1996) effects of ethanol as well. The P, but not NP, line display greater acoustic startle reactivity during ethanol-associated withdrawal compared with basal conditions (Chester et al., 2004). P rats display greater locomotor activation after low dose ethanol, compared with NP rats (Rodd et al., 2004a; Waller et al., 1986), and P rats display locomotor activation during ethanol drinking or self-administration (Bell et al., 2002; Melendez et al., 2002). Thus, the P line of rat satisfies the criteria proposed for an animal model of alcoholism.
