Sex differences in alcohol consumption and alterations in nucleus accumbens endocannabinoid mRNA in alcohol-dependent rats

Henricks, Angela M.; Berger, Anthony L.; Lugo, Janelle M.; Baxter-Potter, Lydia N.; Craft, Rebecca M.; McLaughlin, Ryan J.

doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2016.08.032

Cited by 17 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 76 publications

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“…The current findings align well with previous work describing sex differences in alcohol drinking behavior. Here we replicate findings that female rats drink more alcohol than male rats when accounting for body weight, with female alcohol intake levels fluctuating slightly across the different phases of estrous (12,13,33). Interestingly, when predicting phase of estrous in females from corticostriatal LFPs, the accuracies of the prediction models line up with differences in drinking levels across estrous phases.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Sex differences in the ability of corticostriatal oscillations to predict rodent alcohol consumption

Henricks

Sullivan²,

Dwiel³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Background: Although male and female rats differ in their patterns of alcohol use, little is known regarding the neural circuit activity that underlies these differences in behavior. The current study used a machine learning approach to characterize sex differences in local field potential (LFP) oscillations that may relate to sex differences in alcohol drinking behavior.Methods: LFP oscillations were recorded from the nucleus accumbens shell and the rodent medial prefrontal cortex of adult male and female Sprague-Dawley rats. Recordings occurred before rats were exposed to alcohol (n=10/sex X 2 recordings/rat) and during sessions of limited access to alcohol (n=5/sex X 5 recordings/rat). Oscillations were also recorded from each female rat in each phase of estrous prior to alcohol exposure. Using machine-learning, we built predictive models to classify rats based on: 1) biological sex; 2) phase of estrous; and 3) alcohol intake levels. We evaluated model performance from real data by comparing it to the performance of models built and tested on permutations of the data. Results:Our data demonstrate that corticostriatal oscillations were able to predict alcohol intake levels in males (p<0.01), but not in females (p=0.45). The accuracies of models predicting biological sex and phase of estrous were related to fluctuations observed in alcohol drinking levels; females in diestrus drank more alcohol than males (p=0.052), and the male vs. diestrus female model had the highest accuracy (71.01%) compared to chance estimates.Conversely, females in estrus drank similar amounts of alcohol to males (p=0.702), and the male vs. estrus female model had the lowest accuracy (56.14%) compared to chance estimates. Conclusions:The current data demonstrate that oscillations recorded from corticostriatal circuits contain significant information regarding alcohol drinking in males, but not alcohol drinking in females. Future work will focus on identifying where to record LFP oscillations in order to predict alcohol drinking in females, which may help elucidate sex-specific neural targets for future therapeutic development.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

Sex differences in the ability of corticostriatal oscillations to predict rodent alcohol consumption

Henricks

Sullivan²,

Dwiel³

et al. 2019

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Other researchers do not include phase as a factor simply because a large number of female subjects are needed for comparison among different phases. In some published studies, sex differences are not established until phases of estrous cycle are analyzed separately 366,367 . In order to advance our understanding, different phases are recommended to be analyzed as a factor to reveal sex differences that may not be seen when various phases are analyzed together.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Estrogens on Central Nervous System Neurotransmission: Implications for Sex Differences in Mental Disorders

Krolick

Zhu

Shi

2018

Progress in Molecular Biology and Translational Science

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Nearly one of every five US individuals aged twelve years old or older live with certain types of mental disorders. Men are more likely to use various types of substances, while women tend to be more susceptible to mood disorders, addiction, and eating disorders, all of which are risks associated with suicidal attempts. Fundamental sex differences exist in multiple aspects of functions and activities of neurotransmitter-mediated neural circuits in the central nervous system (CNS). Dysregulation of these neural circuits would lead to various types of mental disorders. The potential mechanisms of sex differences in the CNS neural circuitry regulating mood, reward, and motivation are only beginning to be understood, although they have been largely attributed to the effects of sex hormones on CNS neurotransmission pathways. Understanding this topic is important for developing prevention and treatment of mental disorders that should be tailored differently between men and women. Studies using animal models have provided important insights into pathogenesis, mechanisms, and new therapeutic approaches of human diseases, but some concerns remain to be addressed. The purpose of this chapter is to integrate human and animal studies involving the effects of sex hormone estrogens on CNS neurotransmission, reward processing, and associated mental disorders. We provide an overview of existing evidence for the physiological, behavioral, cellular and molecular actions of estrogens in the context of controlling neurotransmission in the CNS circuits regulating mood, reward and motivation, and discuss related pathology that leads to related mental disorders.

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“…After each baseline recording session, estrous cycle was determined via vaginal lavage as described previously [13]. Slides were stained using thionin and the stage of estrus was assessed using an AmScope light microscope (Irvine, CA).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a similar study, intact female rats showed a heightened reward response to alcohol than either males or ovariectomized females, suggesting that ovarian hormones help facilitate the reinforcing properties of alcohol [10]. Ovarian hormone status has also been associated with small fluctuations in alcohol consumption in intact females [12, 13]. However, it is currently unknown whether the neural circuits that regulate alcohol consumption show sexually dimorphic activity patterns (and whether these patterns are influenced by ovarian hormone status) that may explain the sex differences in alcohol drinking behavior.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex differences in the ability of corticostriatal oscillations to predict rodent alcohol consumption

et al. 2019

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Although male and female rats differ in their patterns of alcohol use, little is known regarding the neural circuit activity that underlies these differences in behavior. The current study used a machine learning approach to characterize sex differences in local field potential (LFP) oscillations that may relate to sex differences in alcohol-drinking behavior.Methods: LFP oscillations were recorded from the nucleus accumbens shell and the rodent medial prefrontal cortex of adult male and female Sprague-Dawley rats. Recordings occurred before rats were exposed to alcohol (n = 10/sex × 2 recordings/rat) and during sessions of limited access to alcohol (n = 5/sex × 5 recordings/rat). Oscillations were also recorded from each female rat in each phase of estrous prior to alcohol exposure. Using machine learning, we built predictive models with oscillation data to classify rats based on: (1) biological sex, (2) phase of estrous, and (3) alcohol intake levels. We evaluated model performance from real data by comparing it to the performance of models built and tested on permutations of the data. Results: Our data demonstrate that corticostriatal oscillations were able to predict alcohol intake levels in males (p < 0.01), but not in females (p = 0.45). The accuracies of models predicting biological sex and phase of estrous were related to fluctuations observed in alcohol drinking levels; females in diestrus drank more alcohol than males (p = 0.052), and the male vs. diestrus female model had the highest accuracy (71.01%) compared to chance estimates. Conversely, females in estrus drank very similar amounts of alcohol to males (p = 0.702), and the male vs. estrus female model had the lowest accuracy (56.14%) compared to chance estimates. Conclusions: The current data demonstrate that oscillations recorded from corticostriatal circuits contain significant information regarding alcohol drinking in males, but not alcohol drinking in females. Future work will focus on identifying where to record LFP oscillations in order to predict alcohol drinking in females, which may help elucidate sex-specific neural targets for future therapeutic development.

show abstract

Sex differences in alcohol consumption and alterations in nucleus accumbens endocannabinoid mRNA in alcohol-dependent rats

Cited by 17 publications

References 76 publications

Sex differences in the ability of corticostriatal oscillations to predict rodent alcohol consumption

Sex differences in the ability of corticostriatal oscillations to predict rodent alcohol consumption

Effects of Estrogens on Central Nervous System Neurotransmission: Implications for Sex Differences in Mental Disorders

Sex differences in the ability of corticostriatal oscillations to predict rodent alcohol consumption

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