Ritzmann R F, Tabakoff B
Adv Exp Med Biol. 1980;126:197-210. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4684-3632-7_18.
C57B1/6 mouse brain serotonin levels were depleted by feeding animals a diet containing no tryptophan. When such mice were injected with ethanol, they were found to lose their righting reflex for significantly longer periods and to have a lower body temperature than control animals. Animals consuming the diet containing no tryptophan metabolized ethanol more slowly than controls. Although daily injections of kynurenine reinstated ethanol metabolism to normal, the duration of loss of righting reflex and the hypothermia induced by ethanol were unaffected by kynurenine pretreatment. Tryptophan (75 mg/kg) administered six hours prior to ethanol injection returned brain serotonin levels to normal in tryptophan-deprived mice. Mice injected with tryptophan were found to respond to ethanol as did the control animals. When brain ethanol levels were determined at the time the animals lost their righting reflex and when animals regained their righting reflex, tryptophan-deprived mice were found to regain the righting reflex at the same brain ethanol levels as those at which such animals lost their righting reflex. Tryptophan administration to tryptophan-deprived mice resulted in their regaining the righting reflex at higher ethanol levels than those at which they lost the reflex. Similar experiments were carried out on C3H/HeJ and DBA/J2 mice. The results indicate that C3H mice developed some acute tolerance while DBA mice failed to develop any acute tolerance. The possibility exists that the strain difference in the degree of sensitivity to ethanol observed in these mice may be due to differing abilities to develop acute tolerance.
通过给C57B1/6小鼠喂食不含色氨酸的饮食来耗尽其脑内血清素水平。当给这些小鼠注射乙醇时，发现它们失去翻正反射的时间明显更长，且体温低于对照动物。食用不含色氨酸饮食的动物比对照动物代谢乙醇的速度更慢。尽管每天注射犬尿氨酸可使乙醇代谢恢复正常，但翻正反射丧失的持续时间以及乙醇诱导的体温过低不受犬尿氨酸预处理的影响。在注射乙醇前6小时给予色氨酸（75毫克/千克）可使色氨酸缺乏小鼠的脑血清素水平恢复正常。发现注射色氨酸的小鼠对乙醇的反应与对照动物相同。当在动物失去翻正反射时以及动物恢复翻正反射时测定脑乙醇水平时，发现色氨酸缺乏小鼠在与失去翻正反射时相同的脑乙醇水平下恢复翻正反射。给色氨酸缺乏小鼠施用色氨酸导致它们在比失去反射时更高的乙醇水平下恢复翻正反射。对C3H/HeJ和DBA/J2小鼠进行了类似实验。结果表明，C3H小鼠产生了一定程度的急性耐受性，而DBA小鼠未产生任何急性耐受性。这些小鼠中观察到的对乙醇敏感性程度的品系差异可能是由于产生急性耐受性的能力不同所致。
