The role of the blood glucose level in determining voluntary ethanol consumption in the LACG and diabetogenic C57BL strains of mice

The Relationship of Appetitive, Reproductive and Posterior Pituitary Hormones to Alcoholism and Craving in Humans

“…Interestingly, a link between glucose homeostasis, which is under the direct control of insulin levels, and alcohol-seeking behavior has been suggested. For example, C57BL mice which are hyperglycemic (Connelly et al 1983) as well as Wistar rats with glucose intolerance (Zito et al, 1984) have shown a preference for ethanol. In humans, Blum et al (2007) developed a ‘reward deficiency syndrome’ model, suggesting that subjects with an addiction disorder (i.e., alcohol dependence, binge eating) have genetic alterations of the dopamine brain system and that the dopamine-glucose link plays a key role in this syndrome.…”

Ghrelin system in alcohol‐dependent subjects: role of plasma ghrelin levels in alcohol drinking and craving

“…Like alcoholism, obesity and binge eating are complex genetic traits determined by several genes, and interacting with the environment (Leggio et al, 2011). For example, sweet liking has been proposed as a possible endophenotype for alcohol dependence (AD) (for review: Kampov-Polevoy et al, 2003) and a link between glucose levels and alcohol-seeking behavior has been suggested both in animals (Connelly et al, 1983; Zito et al, 1984) and in alcohol-dependent individuals (Leggio et al, 2009a). Furthermore, it has been suggested that feeding-related peptides, such as leptin (Kiefer et al, 2005; Hillemacher et al, 2007), orexin-1/hypocretin-1 (Richards et al, 2008), insulin (Leggio et al, 2008a), thyroid hormones (Leggio et al, 2008b) and adiponectin (Hillemacher et al, 2009) are related to alcohol-seeking behavior.…”

Genetic Analyses of Ethanol‐Induced Hyperglycemia

“…Several reports have indicated that ethanol consumption is related to blood glucose levels. For example, ethanol-preferring C57BL/6 mice show higher basal blood glucose levels compared with nonpreferring strains (Connelly et al, 1983;Risinger and Cunningham, 1992). Ethanol intake by C57BL/6 mice is reduced after treatment with drugs that lower blood glucose level (Connelly et al, 1983;Goas et al, 1979).…”