Characterization of acute and chronic tolerance in mice selected for inherent differences in sensitivity to ethanol.

Long sleep (LS) and short sleep (SS) mice have been selectively bred for differences in response to hypnotic doses of ethanol. In these studies, SS mice were found to develop functional tolerance faster than LS mice during a regimen of multiple injections of ethanol. No evidence for the development of acute tolerance was evident in mice of either of the selected lines or the offspring of an LS by SS cross (F1), and no metabolic tolerance developed during the 5-day alcohol treatment period.