In the Rat Chronic Intermittent Ethanol Exposure During Adolescence Alters the Ethanol Sensitivity of Tonic Inhibition in Adulthood

摘要

BackgroundAlcohol drinking by adolescents is a major public health concern. Adolescents tend to drink in a chronic, intermittent, that is, “binge,” pattern, and such patterns of ethanol exposure are associated with increased risk of neurotoxicity and the development of alcohol use disorders (; ). Both adolescent humans and rats are more sensitive to acute ethanol-induced memory impairment than adults (; ). Furthermore, in rats, chronic intermittent ethanol (CIE) exposure during adolescence produces a long-lasting, perhaps permanent, maintenance of the adolescent high sensitivity to ethanol’s amnestic effects (). We have previously shown that acute ethanol increases tonic inhibitory current mediated by extrasynaptic GABAA receptors more efficaciously in dentate granule cells (DGCs) from adolescent than adult rats (). In this study, we determined if CIE during adolescence produced long-lasting changes in this tonic current.