Analysis of the differences between preferring and unselected rat strains on the social induction of the alcohol consumption during adolescence

• Grant number: 12/20061-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2013
• End date: January 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Experimental Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Miriam Garcia Mijares
• Grantee: Raquel Reis de Paiva
• Host Institution: Instituto de Psicologia (IP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Alcoholism is a major problem nowadays, especially when it comes to young people, considering that the age of the beginning of the alcohol consumption influences the alcohol addiction development. Social and genetic factors also play an important role on the alcohol addiction. There are several animal models that simulate social aspects of the alcohol addiction, being the "demonstrator-observer" one of the most frequently used. This experiment aims to investigate the influence of genetic preference for alcohol over the social induction of the alcohol consumption in adolescent rats. Wistar (n=40) and Lewis (n=40) rat strains will be submitted to the demonstrator-observer procedure and the observers' consumption will be compared. The Wistar strain is genetically outbred and unselected regarding to alcohol preference and the Lewis strain is inbred and alcohol-preferring. At 28 days old the rats will be allocated in pairs of the same strain. One animal will be classified as demonstrator and the other as observer. At 30 days old, demonstrator rats will be isolated for thirty minutes and, after that, 10 demonstrators from each strain will be administrated 1.5 g/Kg of alcohol by intragastric way (Experimental Group). The remaining demonstrators will receive water (Control Group). After thirty more minutes of isolation, demonstrator-observer' pairs will interact for thirty minutes. Afterwards, observer rats will be submitted to the two-bottle choice procedure for 24 hours. One bottle will deliver water while the other will deliver a 5.6% v/v alcohol solution. The data will be analyzed by mixed ANOVA with one between-subject (Wistar vs. Lewis) and one intra-subject factor (water vs. alcohol solution). (AU)