Abstract
Selective breeding was used to produce lines of mice which differ markedly in their genetically-mediated vulnerability to handling-induced convulsions (HIC) associated with the ethanol withdrawal syndrome. These are known as the ethanol withdrawal seizure prone (WSP) and withdrawal seizure resistant (WSR) selection lines. As a result of 5 generations of selective breeding with ethanol, a 3.4-fold difference between WSP and WSR mice was seen in HIC associated with ethanol withdrawal. When diazepam was used as the dependence-producing drug, a 2.4-fold difference emerged. After 6 more generations of selective breeding with ethanol, an approximate 10-fold difference was seen with ethanol, while with diazepam, this difference in HIC scores was also about 10-fold. This close parallel between ethanol and diazepam indicates that physical dependence on both drugs, as indexed by handling-induced convulsions, is extensively codetermined by the same genes, and thus by the same mechanisms, in these selectively-bred mice.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 2075-2080 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | Life Sciences |
Volume | 44 |
Issue number | 26 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1989 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics
- General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology