Indomethacin does not antagonize the anxiolytic action of ethanol in the elevated plus-maze

Abstract

The present study was designed to examine whether the prostaglandin (PG) synthesis inhibitor indomethacin (INDO) could antagonize the anxiolytic effects of ethanol (EtOH) in the elevated plus-maze test of anxiety. EtOH (1.6 g/kg) significantly increased the percentage of open arm entries and time spent on the open arms in both inbred C57BL/6J and outbred CD-1 mouse strains. However, this anxiolytic effect of EtOH was not significantly antagonized by pretreatment with INDO (5 and 10 mg/kg) in either strain. EtOH also significantly increased total arm entries in CD-1 mice, but not in the C57BL/6J strain. These data from C57BL/6J mice indicate that the low-dose stimulant properties of EtOH can be dissociated from the anxiolytic action of the drug in the plus-maze task. Finally, although INDO did not antagonize the stimulant effect of EtOH in the plus-maze task (in CD-1 mice), it did attenuate EtOH-induced stimulation of locomotor activity in an open-field arena. Taken together, these results suggest some specificity with regard to the role of PGs in mediating (or modulating) the neurobehavioral actions of EtOH, and further support the notion that the anxiolytic and stimulant effects of EtOH may be mediated by different mechanisms.

Operant, oral alcoholic beer self-administration by C57BL/6J mice: effect of BHF177, a positive allosteric modulator of GABAB receptors

“…Although the pharmacological effects in our alcoholic beer self-administration setting seem in line with the ample data obtained with similar amounts of ethanol after nonoperant systemic administration in C57BL/6J mice (Crabbe et al, 1982(Crabbe et al, , 2005Besheer et al, 2004;Gulick and Gould, 2009;Middaugh et al, 1987;1992;Hale et al, 1990;Quertemont et al, 2004), the lack of information on ethanol plasma levels reached in these studies-in ours-makes it difficult to compare the results. Moreover, in our setting, the amount of ethanol in beer was taken voluntarily by mice in a 30-min session, while in the above studies, mice received it passively as a single systemic dose.…”

“…To see whether self-administered alcoholic beer, like systemically administered ethanol (Hale et al, 1990;Quertemont et al, 2004) had "anxiolytic-like activity", we analyzed behavior in the EPM, a pharmacologically validated model of anxiety (Pellow and File, 1986). Naïve mice were trained to selfadminister near-beer (n017) or 9% alcoholic beer (n027).…”