Institute of Biotechnology, HiLIFE, University of Helsinki, PO Box 56, Viikinkaari 5, 00014, Helsinki, Finland.
Neuroscience Center, HiLIFE, University of Helsinki, PO Box 56, Biomedicum, Haartmaninkatu 8, 00014, Helsinki, Finland.
Alcohol Alcohol. 2022 Jul 9;57(4):405-412. doi: 10.1093/alcalc/agab032.
Recently we developed a model to study alcohol-seeking behaviour after withdrawal in a social context in female mice. The model raised several questions that we were eager to address to improve methodology.
In our model, female mice were group-housed in automated cages with three conditioned (CS+) corners and water in both sides of one separate non-conditioned corner. Water was available with opened doors at all the time of training. We established conditioning by pairing alcohol drinking with light cues. Here, we introduced prolonged access to increasing concentrations of alcohol instead of intermittent access. To study motivation to drink alcohol, we carried out the extinction tests on withdrawal days 1 (WD1) and 10 (WD10). During tests, the light cues were present in conditioned corners, but there was no liquid in the bottles.
We found that the number of visits and nosepokes in the CS+ corner in the alcohol group was much higher than in the water group. Also, during training, the consumption of alcohol was increasing. In the extinction tests, we found that the number of nosepokes in the CS+ corner increased in the alcohol group on both WD1 and WD10.
Our study supports that alcohol-seeking behaviour after withdrawal can be modelled and studied in group-housed animals and environments without social isolation.
最近，我们开发了一种在社交环境中研究雌性小鼠戒酒后觅酒行为的模型。该模型提出了一些我们急于解决的问题，以改进方法。
在我们的模型中，雌性小鼠被群体饲养在带有三个条件（CS+）角落的自动化笼子里，在一侧的一个单独的非条件角落中有水。在训练过程中，门始终是开着的，水可以随时取用。我们通过将饮酒与光线索配对来进行条件训练。在这里，我们引入了长时间接触不断增加浓度的酒精，而不是间歇性接触。为了研究饮酒的动机，我们在戒断日 1（WD1）和 10（WD10）进行了消退测试。在测试过程中，条件角落中有光线索，但瓶子里没有液体。
我们发现，酒精组在 CS+角落的探访次数和鼻触次数明显高于水组。此外，在训练过程中，酒精的消耗量在增加。在消退测试中，我们发现酒精组在 WD1 和 WD10 时，CS+角落的鼻触次数都有所增加。
我们的研究支持在没有社交隔离的群居动物和环境中，可以对戒酒后的觅酒行为进行建模和研究。
