Tolerance to ethanol in rats bred on essential fatty acid deficient diets

We bred three generations of Sprague-Dawley rats on a diet deficient in essential fatty acids, low-EFA (0.3 energy %), whereas age matched controls received normal-EFA (3.0 energy %). Subgroups (N = 6) of female rats were given daily IP injections of ethanol (3.0 g/kg) or isocaloric glucose for 23 consecutive days. On days 1 and 22 blood-ethanol profiles, rates of ethanol metabolism and ethanol-induced impairment of motor coordination were measured after the challenge dose of 3.0 g/kg. Rats exposed to ethanol ate and drank more than controls and gained more body weight over the 23 days. Low-EFA rats were slightly more impaired than normal EFA rats after an acute dose of ethanol even though the peak blood ethanol concentrations reached were about the same at 2.9 mg/ml (63 mmol/l). After chronic ethanol treatment a functional tolerance developed in both dietary groups but the degree of tolerance was less clearcut in low EFA rats. Metabolic tolerance was confirmed after chronic treatment in both dietary groups as shown by steeper slopes (19-27%) of the ethanol elimination curves. But no significant differences in the development of metabolic tolerance were apparent in rats on low EFA and normal EFA diets.