Abstract
In the present study, we aimed to assess the impact of early life stress, in the form of early maternal deprivation (MD, 24 h on postnatal day, pnd, 9), on voluntary alcohol intake in adolescent male and female Wistar rats. During adolescence, from pnd 28 to pnd 50, voluntary ethanol intake (20%, v/v) was investigated using the two-bottle free choice paradigm. To better understand the relationship between stress and alcohol consumption, voluntary alcohol intake was also evaluated following additional stressful events later in life, that is, a week of alcohol cessation and a week of alcohol cessation combined with exposure to restraint stress. Female animals consumed more alcohol than males only after a second episode of alcohol cessation combined with restraint stress. MD did not affect baseline voluntary alcohol intake but increased voluntary alcohol intake after stress exposure, indicating that MD may render animals more vulnerable to the effects of stress on alcohol intake. During adolescence, when animals had free access to alcohol, MD animals showed lower body weight gain but a higher growth rate than control animals. Moreover, the higher growth rate was accompanied by a decrease in food intake, suggesting an altered metabolic regulation in MD animals that may interact with alcohol intake.
Highlights
Epidemiological data indicate that adverse life events during the first few years of life can increase the risk for psychopathology, including drug addiction [1, 2]
We have focused on the investigation of the early maternal deprivation (MD) animal model, that is, 24 h of dam-litter separation on postnatal day 9
Animals exposed to neonatal MD, compared to control non-MD animals, showed higher levels of alcohol intake following a short period of alcohol cessation as well as after the combination of an additional period of alcohol cessation concomitant to restraint stress exposure
Summary
Epidemiological data indicate that adverse life events during the first few years of life can increase the risk for psychopathology, including drug addiction [1, 2]. Early life stress has been proposed to predict alcohol drinking in adolescence and alcohol abuse and dependence at adulthood (see [3] for review). The effects of early life stress can be studied in a controlled manner by removal of the dam during the first 2 weeks of life (for a review on the animals models of dam-litter interaction disruption, please consult [5,6,7]). The effects of early life stress on alcohol consumption currently available are inconsistent and highly dependent on environmental factors such as the species and strains used and the protocol used for the maternal separation protocol (see [8] as an example). We have focused on the investigation of the early maternal deprivation (MD) animal model, that is, 24 h of dam-litter separation on postnatal day (pnd) 9. MD seems to modify the response of Neural Plasticity animals to diverse drugs of abuse, including cannabinoids [7, 18, 20], 3,4-methylenedioxymetamphetamine (MDMA) [21], and cocaine [22]
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