Hosová-Kennedy Dominika, Varlinskaya Elena I, Werner David F
Center for Development and Behavioral Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY 13902-6000.
Center for Development and Behavioral Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, Binghamton University, Binghamton, NY 13902-6000.
Alcohol. 2023 Oct 28. doi: 10.1016/j.alcohol.2023.10.039.
In human adolescents, females often report drinking for coping reasons to avoid negative affective states. We have shown previously that adolescent female rats with elevated levels of anxiety-like behavior under social test circumstances, indexed via low social preference are sensitive to anxiolytic effects of ethanol given intraperitoneally (ip) in a low-to-moderate dose range. This study was designed to test the hypothesis that patterns of neuronal activation across brain regions implicated in social activity and social preference (used as an index of low versus high anxiety-like social responding) would be affected by acute ethanol differently in adolescent females with high and low social preference, with initial levels of social preference also predicting ethanol-induced changes in social behavior. Adolescent female Fos-LacZ rats were given social interaction tests on postnatal day (P)33 for determination of baseline levels of responding to an unfamiliar social partner and on P35 following administration of 0 or 0.75 g/kg ethanol. Brain tissue was collected, and expression of β-galactoside (β-gal) was used as an index of neuronal activation. Baseline levels of social preference did not predict social responsiveness to an acute ethanol challenge, whereas significant decreases in this social measure that reflects anxiety-like behavioral alterations were evident in adolescent females challenged with ethanol relative to saline-injected controls, suggesting high sensitivity to the anxiogenic effects of ethanol. Ethanol precipitated negative relationships between social preference and prefrontal cortical activation, decreased neuronal activation of the anterior cingulate cortex, but substantially increased β-gal expression in the central amygdala. These results suggest high sensitivity of the prefrontal cortical regions and central amygdala to ethanol-induced alterations in adolescent Fos-LacZ females and provide a background for further phenotyping of neurons activated by ethanol under social test circumstances.
在人类青少年中，女性常称饮酒是为了应对压力，以避免负面情绪状态。我们之前已经表明，在社交测试环境下表现出焦虑样行为水平升高的青春期雌性大鼠（通过低社交偏好来衡量），对低至中等剂量腹腔注射(ip)乙醇的抗焦虑作用敏感。本研究旨在检验以下假设：在社交活动和社交偏好（用作高焦虑样社交反应与低焦虑样社交反应的指标）中涉及的大脑区域的神经元激活模式，在社交偏好高和低的青春期雌性大鼠中会受到急性乙醇的不同影响，社交偏好的初始水平也可预测乙醇诱导的社交行为变化。对青春期雌性Fos-LacZ大鼠在出生后第(P)33天进行社交互动测试，以确定对陌生社交伙伴的反应基线水平，并在第35天给予0或0.75 g/kg乙醇后再次测试。收集脑组织，将β-半乳糖苷(β-gal)的表达用作神经元激活的指标。社交偏好的基线水平并不能预测对急性乙醇挑战的社交反应，而相对于注射生理盐水的对照组，接受乙醇挑战的青春期雌性大鼠中，这种反映焦虑样行为改变的社交指标显著下降，这表明其对乙醇的致焦虑作用高度敏感。乙醇导致社交偏好与前额叶皮质激活之间呈负相关，前扣带回皮质的神经元激活减少，但中央杏仁核中的β-gal表达大幅增加。这些结果表明，前额叶皮质区域和中央杏仁核对乙醇诱导的青春期Fos-LacZ雌性大鼠的改变高度敏感，并为进一步研究社交测试环境下被乙醇激活的神经元的表型提供了背景。
