1. The lack of conditioned place preference, but unaltered stimulatory and ataxic effects of alcohol in mGluR3-KO mice.
- Author
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Lainiola, Mira, Hietala, Lana, Linden, Anni-Maija, and Aitta-aho, Teemu
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ALCOHOL , *GLUTAMATE receptors , *ALCOHOL drinking , *CONDITIONED response , *MICE , *CONSUMER preferences - Abstract
Background: Alcohol use associates with environmental cues that can later reinstate drinking patterns without any alcohol exposure. Alcohol-induced reward, when combined with contextual signals of various sensory modalities in the central synapses of mesolimbic reward circuitries, can lead to the formation of conditioned responses.Aims: As the activation of glutamatergic synapses is pivotal in such processes, we aimed to investigate whether the metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 3 plays a role in alcohol-induced behaviours including place preference.Methods: The metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 3 knockout (mGluR3-KO) mouse line was used to study alcohol-induced place preference, locomotor activating and ataxic effects, limited access alcohol drinking, and preference for sucrose and saccharin.Results: Alcohol-induced horizontal locomotor stimulation and reduced rearing behaviour remained unchanged in the mGluR3-KO mice. However, alcohol-induced place conditioning in an unbiased paradigm setup was lacking in the mGluR3-KO mice, but clearly present in wildtype mice. Locomotor activity was not different between the mGluR3-KO and wildtype mice during the acquisition and expression trials. Alcohol consumption, studied through the 'drinking in the dark' model, remained unchanged in the mGluR3-KO mice, although low consumption in both wildtype and knockout mice hampers interpretation. The mGluR3-KO mice also showed normal sucrose and saccharin preference.Conclusions: These studies indicate a role for metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 3 in the conditioned contextual alcohol responses, but not in stimulatory, and ataxic alcohol effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]- Published
- 2019
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