UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO
Department of Psychiatry
Fifth Annual Research Forum – Extravaganza 2014
POSTER TITLE
Estradiol enhances ethanol reward and binge-like drinking behavior in female
C57BL/6J mice.
DISEASE/KEY
WORDS:
Binge-like drinking; C57BL/6J; Conditioned Place Preference; Drinking in the Dark;
estradiol; ethanol; mice; reward
AUTHORS:
Elisa R. Hilderbrand, Rosalba Satta, and Amy W. Lasek
MENTEE
CATEGORY:
Graduate Research Assistant
BACKGROUND:
Ethanol abuse is a leading cause of disease and early death across the globe. Most
studies of ethanol’s neurological actions have thus far been conducted in male
animals, and little is known about sex differences in the brain’s response to ethanol.
As the prevalence of alcohol use disorders (AUDs) in women continues to rise, the
need to identify mechanisms that promote ethanol abuse in women is pressing.
Using the conditioned place preference (CPP) and drinking in the dark (DID)
experimental paradigms, we investigated the effects of estradiol treatment on
ethanol reward and binge-like drinking behavior in ovariectomized (OVX) female
mice.
Adult female C57BL/6J mice were OVX and treated daily with either estradiol
benzoate (EB; 0.2 µg) or sesame oil vehicle by subcutaneous injection for the
duration of the experiment. For CPP, mice were administered 2.0 g/kg ethanol (20%
v/v in saline) by intraperitoneal injection and confined to their initially non-preferred
chamber of the CPP apparatus for 5 min. On alternate days, they received saline and
were confined to the opposite chamber. A total of eight conditioning sessions (four
ethanol, four saline) were used. For DID, mice were individually housed in a reversed
light/dark cycle room, such that behavioral testing was conducted during the
animals’ circadian night. Binge-like ethanol drinking was measured over four days.
Three hours into the dark cycle, mice were given access to 20% ethanol (v/v in water)
in sipper tubes and allowed to drink freely for either two (days 1-3) or four (day 4)
hours.
EB treatment significantly enhanced preference for the ethanol-paired compartment
(p < 0.05) and ethanol consumption (p < 0.005) in the CPP and DID paradigms,
respectively.
METHODS:
RESULTS:
RESEARCH MENTOR:
Amy W. Lasek
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO
Department of Psychiatry
CONCLUSIONS:
Our findings suggest that estradiol promotes ethanol reward and binge-like drinking
behavior in female animals at a physiologically relevant dose. Higher circulating
estradiol levels may predispose women to ethanol abuse.