Persistence of tolerance to a single dose of ethanol in the selectively-bred alcohol-preferring P rat

The persistence of tolerance to a single dose of ethanol was examined in the selectively-bred alcohol-preferring P line of rats. Tolerance was measured by a test that required trained rats to jump onto a descending platform to avoid footshock. On day 0, each trained rat received a single IP injection of 2.5 g ethanol/kg body weight and was tested every 15 minutes for recovery to a criterion of 75% of pre-alcohol training performance. The second ethanol injection of 2.5 g/kg and testing were carried out seven days later for one group (n = 12), and 14 days later for another group (n = 12). Tolerance was assessed by the differences in time required to recover to criterion performance and blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) at time of recovery on day 0 vs. day 7 and day 14. The mean recovery times and BACs on day 0 were 156 +/- 5 minutes and 222 +/- 6 mg%, respectively. The group injected on day 7 exhibited shorter recovery times of 113 +/- 4 minutes and higher BACs at recovery of 261 +/- 4 mg%, while the group injected on day 14 did not show any significant differences from the values obtained on day 0. In a second experiment, the persistence of tolerance in P rats was compared with that of rats from the alcohol-nonpreferring NP line and of stock Wistar rats (n = 6/group). All rats were trained and tested for recovery to criterion after 2.5 g ethanol/kg on day 0 as described for the first experiment. The rats were then injected with ethanol and tested for tolerance on three subsequent occasions.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)