Hypoglycemia and hypothermia induced by ethanol: antagonism by indomethacin.

The influence of pretreatment with 5.0 or 10.0 mg/kg of indomethacin, a prostaglandin synthetase inhibitor, on the alterations in body temperature produced by 3.0 and 4.0 g/kg of ethanol, was studied in food-deprived and free-feeding rats. A partial antagonism of ethanol's hypothermic effect resulted from indomethacin pretreatments and this effect was found to be ethanol dose-dependent. This result could account for the conflicting reports in the literature on the effectiveness of indomethacin in antagonizing ethanol-induced hypothermia. Indomethacin (5.0 mg/kg) also antagonized ethanol-induced hypoglycemia in 48 hr starved rats. The relationship between two effects of ethanol, hypothermia and hypoglycemia, is discussed.