Silva-Borges André Lucas, Barkley-Levenson Amanda M
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA.
bioRxiv. 2025 Jun 6:2025.06.03.657694. doi: 10.1101/2025.06.03.657694.
Nest building is a natural behavior that can readily be analyzed in mice in the home cage environment. Nest building is involved in thermoregulation, positive motivational states, and motor function, and has been proposed as an index for ethanol withdrawal severity in mice. However, nest building outcomes after voluntary ethanol consumption have not been examined. Here, we tested male and female C57BL/6J mice on a 4-day drinking in the dark (DID) paradigm of binge-like drinking with either ethanol or a water control and analyzed nest scores at two time points (48 hours and 7 days) after the last DID session. At 48 hours after the last DID session, there were no differences between the two groups in nest quality. At 7 days after DID, ethanol-drinking animals showed significantly lower nest scores than the water group. No differences were found between the ethanol- and water-drinking groups in locomotor activity or anxiety-like behavior at this timepoint, indicating that nest building deficits in the ethanol group were likely not due to underlying differences in these behaviors. Together, these results validate the use of nest building as a naturalistic assessment of withdrawal-associated behavioral changes following voluntary binge-like ethanol consumption.
筑巢是一种自然行为，在笼养环境中的小鼠身上很容易进行分析。筑巢行为涉及体温调节、积极的动机状态和运动功能，并且已被提议作为小鼠乙醇戒断严重程度的一个指标。然而，自愿摄入乙醇后的筑巢结果尚未得到研究。在此，我们让雄性和雌性C57BL/6J小鼠在一个为期4天的黑暗中饮酒（DID）模式下进行类似暴饮的饮酒实验，分别给予乙醇或水作为对照，并在最后一次DID实验后的两个时间点（48小时和7天）分析筑巢得分。在最后一次DID实验后的48小时，两组在筑巢质量上没有差异。在DID后的7天，饮用乙醇的动物的筑巢得分显著低于饮水组。在这个时间点，饮用乙醇组和饮水组在运动活动或焦虑样行为方面没有发现差异，这表明乙醇组的筑巢缺陷可能不是由于这些行为的潜在差异所致。总之，这些结果证实了将筑巢作为对自愿进行类似暴饮的乙醇摄入后与戒断相关的行为变化的一种自然主义评估方法的有效性。
