Using Sip Procedures For Food Deprived Sprague Dawley Rats

Using SIP procedures in moderately-food deprived Sprague-Dawley rats, we found that adolescent males and females provided with scheduled delivery of banana pellets willingly drank notable amounts of 10% ethanol in a palatable solution (Boost ®) in short, 30 minute daily access sessions between the ages of P28 to P41. By collecting blood samples twice during the fourteen days of access, we established that this intake was often sufficient to raise BECs into the binge range ( 80mg/dl). Intake of individual animals was observed to occur in a binge-like pattern over days, typically characterized by a high consumption day followed by 1-2 days of drastically lower intake, cycling repeatedly. Such binge-like patterns were less evident in the†¦show more content†¦1b). This finding is inconsistent with prior literature, showing that SIP can be established with water only (Falk, 1961). Furthermore, in Experiment 2 where scheduled delivery was abolished, with animals receiving mass p resentation of pellets at the onset of the intake session, high consumption levels were nevertheless maintained. It is possible that the lack of schedule dependency per se may have been associated with limitations in the number of test days due to the time constraints of adolescence. Indeed, SIP with an ethanol solution is typically established in adult rats over a period of many weeks in the operant chambers, during which the concentration of ethanol is gradually raised (Falk et al., 1972). In preliminary work, we established the 14 day (P28-41) intake period, noting that consumptions declined notably as animals transitioned out of the early-mid adolescent period, an ontogenetic time course similar to what we have observed in home cage consumption studies (Vetter-O’Hagen et al., 2009). In Experiment 1b, animals given access to Boost ® without ethanol consumed on average more than twice as much fluid (ml/kg) per intake session than their ethanol-drinking counterparts in Experiment 1a. This is likely to be due to the high palatability of chocolate Boost  ® for adolescent rats, which is diminished by the combination of the bitter/sweet taste properties of