Cholecystokinin octapeptides influence tolerance to ethanol in mice.

The effects of graded doses of cholecystokinin octapeptide sulphate (CCK-8-S) and non-sulphated CCK-8 (CCK-8-NS) on the development of tolerance to the hypothermic effect of ethanol were investigated in mice. The animals were pretreated with daily doses of CCK-8-S, CCK-8-NS (0.003-30 nmol/animal s.c.) or vehicle, followed two hours later by the i.p. administration of ethanol (4 g/kg). The same treatments were repeated on three consecutive days. The hypothermic response to ethanol administration gradually diminished, this phenomenon being accepted as indicating the development of tolerance to ethanol. Both CCK-8-S and CCK-8-NS inhibited the development of tolerance. While CCK-8-S resulted in a linear dose-response effect (0.3-30 nmol/animal), CCK-8-NS gave rise to a bell-shaped curve with effective blocking doses of 0.3-3 nmol/animal. There was no difference in colonic temperature between peptide and vehicle-treated, ethanol-naive animals, indicating that the peptide did not change the initial sensitivity to ethanol.