Search

In several laboratories, lines of rats have been selectively bred for disparate alcohol drinking preferences. Historically, the first lines of rats selectively bred were the UChA (low-alcohol consumer) and UChB (high-alcohol consumer) rats developed in Santiago, Chile (18). The second lines of rats with contrasting alcohol drinking behaviors were the AA (Alko alcohol) and ANA (Alko nonalcohol) rats selectively raised in Helsinki, Finland (3). The third and fourth lines were the P and NP (alcohol-preferring and -nonpreferring) and the HAD and LAD (high-alcohol-drinking and low-alcohol-drinking) lines raised in our laboratories at Indiana, USA (13, 14). At present, only the P line of rats has been extensively characterized as an animal model of alcoholism. This paper summarizes the major behavioral, neurochemical and neuropharmacological correlates found in the P rats (see previous reviews: 10, 11, 16). Because some of these biological correlates have also been found in the HAD rats (developed from a foundation stock different from that which P rats had been derived), it seems likely that they should have mechanistic bearing in explaining the high alcohol drinking behavior observed in these rodents.