Abstract
Background: The intermittent access 2-bottle choice (IA2BC) and drinking in the dark (DID) models were developed for studying rodent binge-like consumption. Traditionally, IA2BC was used with rats and DID with mice. Recently, IA2BC was adapted to study mouse ethanol consumption. However, it is unknown whether DID is suitable for rats or if one rat model is more advantageous than another for studying binge-like consumption.Methods: Male Wistar rats consumed 20% ethanol or 5% sucrose using IA2BC or DID for 12 weeks. IA2BC drinking sessions occurred on alternate days (Mondays–Fridays) and lasted 24 h, whereas DID sessions ran 4 h/day, 5 days/week (Monday–Friday). Average consumption/session, week and hour was measured. To explore DID model suitability for screening novel compounds for controlling ethanol and sucrose intake, varenicline (2 mg/kg) or vehicle was administered to DID rats.Results: IA2BC rats consume more ethanol/session and similar amounts of ethanol/week than DID rats. While, IA2BC rats consume more sucrose/session and week than DID rats. Although IA2BC rats had more ethanol and sucrose access time, DID rats had greater ethanol and sucrose intake/hour. Varenicline significantly reduced ethanol and sucrose consumption in DID rats, consistent with previously published IA2BC studies.Conclusions: Despite the shorter access time, the rat DID model induced higher initial intake and greater consumption/hour for both ethanol and sucrose. The shorter duration of DID sessions did not prevent detection of varenicline-induced reductions in ethanol or sucrose consumption, suggesting the DID model may be suitable for studying binge-like ethanol and sucrose consumption.
Highlights
Harmful consumption of substances, like alcohol and sugar, remain a world-wide health problem
Mice consuming ethanol using the drinking in the dark model (DID) model, compared to rats using the intermittent access 2-bottle choice (IA2BC) model, display greater insensitive to quinine adulteration of ethanol making it difficult to dissect the natural compulsive behaviors of the mouse from compulsive behaviors associated with ethanol exposure (Hopf and Lesscher, 2014)
The average amount of ethanol consumed in the first 30 min was greater for DID rats (0.73 ± 0.077 g/kg/30 min) compared to IA2BC rats (0.81 ± 0.074 g/kg/30 min; Figure 2A, unpaired T-test with Holm-Sidak correction, p = 0.0130, n = 8)
Summary
Like alcohol and sugar, remain a world-wide health problem. With few effective interventions and treatments available, there remains a critical need for the development of new medications and management strategies for reducing alcohol and sugar intake. Rodent consumption models are valuable tools for examining the mechanisms underlying harmful consumption behaviors and developing new therapies. Both rodent species offer advantages and disadvantages for modeling consumption and sometimes the use of a rat model is preferable to a mouse model. The intermittent access 2-bottle choice (IA2BC) and drinking in the dark (DID) models were developed for studying rodent binge-like consumption. IA2BC was adapted to study mouse ethanol consumption It is unknown whether DID is suitable for rats or if one rat model is more advantageous than another for studying binge-like consumption
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