Developmental Exposure Alcohol Research Center (DEARC), Department of Psychology, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY 13902-6000, USA.
Developmental Exposure Alcohol Research Center (DEARC), Department of Psychology, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY 13902-6000, USA.
Behav Brain Res. 2024 Aug 5;471:115118. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2024.115118. Epub 2024 Jun 19.
Alcohol-associated social facilitation together with attenuated sensitivity to adverse alcohol effects play a substantial role in adolescent alcohol use and misuse, with adolescent females being more susceptible to adverse consequences of binge drinking than adolescent males. Adolescent rodents also demonstrate individual and sex differences in sensitivity to ethanol-induced social facilitation and social inhibition, therefore the current study was designed to identify neuronal activation patterns associated with ethanol-induced social facilitation and ethanol-induced social inhibition in male and female adolescent cFos-LacZ rats. Experimental subjects were given social interaction tests on postnatal day (P) 34, 36, and 38 after an acute challenge with 0, 0.5 and 0.75 g/kg ethanol, respectively, and β-galactosidase (β-gal) expression was assessed in brain tissue of subjects socially facilitated and socially inhibited by 0.75 g/kg ethanol. In females, positive correlations were evident between overall social activity and neuronal activation of seven out of 13 ROIs, including the prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens, with negative correlations evident in males. Assessments of neuronal activation patterns revealed drastic sex differences between ethanol responding phenotypes. In socially inhibited males, strong correlations were evident among almost all ROIs (90 %), with markedly fewer correlations among ROIs (38 %) seen in socially facilitated males. In contrast, interconnectivity in females inhibited by ethanol was only 10 % compared to nearly 60 % in facilitated subjects. However, hub analyses revealed convergence of brain regions in males and females, with the nucleus accumbens being a hub region in socially inhibited subjects. Taken together, these findings demonstrate individual and sex-related differences in responsiveness to acute ethanol in adolescent rats, with sex differences more evident in socially inhibited by ethanol adolescents than their socially facilitated counterparts.
酒精相关的社交促进作用，以及对酒精不良影响的敏感性降低，在青少年饮酒和滥用酒精中起着重要作用，青少年女性比青少年男性更容易受到狂欢性饮酒的不良后果的影响。青少年啮齿动物在对乙醇引起的社交促进和社交抑制的敏感性方面也表现出个体和性别差异，因此本研究旨在确定与乙醇引起的社交促进和乙醇引起的社交抑制相关的神经元激活模式，在雄性和雌性青春期 cFos-LacZ 大鼠中。实验对象在出生后第 34、36 和 38 天分别接受急性 0、0.5 和 0.75 g/kg 乙醇挑战后，进行社交互动测试，然后评估在 0.75 g/kg 乙醇作用下社交促进和社交抑制的动物的脑组织中的β-半乳糖苷酶（β-gal）表达。在女性中，整体社交活动与 13 个 ROI 中的 7 个 ROI 的神经元激活之间存在明显的正相关，包括前额叶皮层和伏隔核，而在男性中则存在负相关。神经元激活模式的评估揭示了乙醇反应表型之间的明显性别差异。在社交抑制的雄性中，几乎所有 ROI（90%）之间都存在明显的相关性，而在社交促进的雄性中，ROI 之间的相关性明显较少（38%）。相比之下，在乙醇抑制的雌性中，相互连接的程度仅为 10%，而在被乙醇促进的雌性中则接近 60%。然而，枢纽分析显示雄性和雌性中脑区的融合，伏隔核是社交抑制动物的枢纽区域。综上所述，这些发现表明，青春期大鼠对急性乙醇的反应存在个体和性别差异，与社交促进的青少年相比，在乙醇抑制的青少年中，性别差异更为明显。
