GIGA-Stem Cells, Interdisciplinary Cluster for Applied Genoproteomics (GIGA-R), University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
Psychology and Neuroscience of Cognition Research Unit (PsyNCog), Animal models of cognition, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
Addict Biol. 2022 Jan;27(1):e13102. doi: 10.1111/adb.13102. Epub 2021 Oct 5.
Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by significant changes in brain architecture and behaviour. The immaturity of the adolescent brain is associated with heightened vulnerability to exogenous agents, including alcohol. Alcohol is the most consumed drug among teenagers, and binge-drinking during adolescence is a major public health concern. Studies have suggested that adolescent alcohol exposure may interfere with the maturation of frontal brain regions and lead to long-lasting behavioural consequences. In this study, by using a slightly modified version of the Drinking in the Dark paradigm, adolescent C57Bl6 mice reach high blood alcohol concentration after voluntary binge-drinking. In order to assess short- and long-term consequences of adolescent alcohol exposure (AAE), a battery of behavioural tests was performed during late adolescence and during adulthood. We showed that AAE had no short-term effect on young mice behaviour but rather increased anxiety- and depressive-like behaviours, as well as alcohol consumption during adulthood. Moreover, alcohol binge-drinking during adolescence dramatically decreased recognition memory performances and behavioural flexibility in both adult males and females. Furthermore, we showed that voluntary consumption of alcohol during adolescence did not trigger any major activation of the innate immune system in the prefrontal cortex. Together, our data suggest that voluntary alcohol binge-drinking in adolescent mice induces a delayed appearance of behavioural impairments in adulthood.
青春期是大脑结构和行为发生重大变化的发育阶段。青少年大脑的不成熟与对外源性物质（包括酒精）的高度脆弱性有关。酒精是青少年中最常使用的药物，青少年狂欢性饮酒是一个主要的公共卫生问题。研究表明，青少年期酒精暴露可能会干扰额叶大脑区域的成熟，并导致持久的行为后果。在这项研究中，通过使用稍微修改的暗饮范式，青春期 C57Bl6 小鼠在自愿狂欢性饮酒后达到高血液酒精浓度。为了评估青少年期酒精暴露（AAE）的短期和长期后果，在青春期晚期和成年期进行了一系列行为测试。我们发现，AAE 对年轻小鼠的行为没有短期影响，但会增加成年期的焦虑和抑郁样行为以及酒精消耗。此外，青春期狂欢性饮酒会大大降低成年雄性和雌性动物的识别记忆表现和行为灵活性。此外，我们还表明，青春期自愿饮酒不会引发前额叶皮质固有免疫系统的任何主要激活。总之，我们的数据表明，青春期小鼠自愿狂欢性饮酒会导致成年后出现行为障碍的延迟表现。
