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    Acute effect of ethanol on anxiety and 5-HT in the prefrontal cortex of rats (2002)

    Art
    Zeitschriftenartikel / wissenschaftlicher Beitrag
    Autoren
    Langen, Barbara
    Dietze, Silke
    Fink, Heidrun
    Quelle
    Alcohol : an international biomedical journal
    Bandzählung: 27
    Heftzählung: 2
    Seiten: 135 – 141
    ISSN: 0741-8329
    Sprache
    Englisch
    Verweise
    Pubmed: 12106833
    Kontakt
    Institut für Pharmakologie und Toxikologie

    Koserstr. 20
    14195 Berlin
    +49 30 838 53221
    pharmakologie@vetmed.fu-berlin.de

    Abstract / Zusammenfassung

    The anxiolytic effect of ethanol is generally accepted to be involved in the development of alcohol dependence. Because serotonin (5-HT) is said to be involved in both anxiety and alcohol dependence, in the present study the effect of acute ethanol administration on basal 5-HT release of the medial prefrontal cortex and its effect on 5-HT release in rats submitted to an animal model of anxiety, the elevated plus maze test, were detected in two rat strains showing a different anxiety-related behavior. Ethanol had an anxiolytic-like effect and induced an increase of basal 5-HT release in the medial prefrontal cortex in the home cage in the less anxious Wistar-Harlan rats. Both effects were not seen in the more anxious Wistar-BgVV rats. The exposure to the elevated plus maze test induced an increase of extracellular 5-HT in the more anxious Wistar-BgVV rats but not in the less anxious Wistar-Harlan rats. Ethanol did not change 5-HT release during the elevated plus maze test in both rat strains. Thus, the anxiolytic-like effect of ethanol in Wistar-Harlan rats was not primarily associated with a decrease of 5-HT release in the prefrontal cortex as it is seen with other anxiolytic agents like diazepam.