Comparison of accelerod and rotarod sensitivity in detecting ethanol- and acrylamide-induced performance decrement in rats: review of experimental considerations of rotating rod systems.

The relative sensitivity of two rotating rod techniques in detecting performance decrement in rats was assessed after treatment with either ethanol or acrylamide. Performance on the rod during acceleration at approximately 1 rpm/sec (accelerod) was compared to that obtained on the same rod operated at a constant speed of 20 rpm (rotarod). Rats trained to either task received a single oral dose of ethanol (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, or 2.0 g/kg) or a series of ip doses of acrylamide (25 or 50 mg/kg/day) before testing. Accelerod performance was significantly more disrupted at lower doses and for longer periods of time after ethanol ingestion than was rotarod performance. Likewise, task disruption resulted from repeated injections of acrylamide also appeared at lower cumulative doses using the accelerod. A higher proportion of the native subjects were successfully trained and the mean time for training to minimum performance standards was significantly less using the accelerod. The greater sensitivity of the accelerod technique in detecting neurotoxic effects is attributed primarily to the fact that this test provides a continuous measure of the upper limit of performance rather than the quantal or arbitrarily truncated measure that one usually obtains from the rotarod. In light of these findings, a review is presented of the primary experimental variables that affect the reliability of data obtained in neurotoxic evaluations using the accelerod and rotarod procedures.