Acute and chronic alcohol injections increase taurine in the nucleus accumbens

Intracerebral microdialysis was used to investigate release of amino acid neurotransmitters in response to acute and chronic injection of alcohol in unanaesthetised animals. Increases in taurine levels but not of glutamate or GABA were found after acute injection of alcohol. Chronic injection of alcohol, in increasing doses over six weeks, resulted in substantially greater increases in taurine levels. Basal levels of all three amino acids were increased after chronic injection of alcohol, up to a dose of 2 g/kg body weight, but not at higher doses. Higher doses may overcome the compensatory capacity which induces increases concentrations of these neuromodulators after chronic exposure to alcohol.