Effects of sweetened ethanol solutions on ethanol self-administration and blood ethanol levels

The enhancement of voluntary self-administration of ethanol by sucrose or s accharin was rested in conjunction with measurements of blood ethanol level s. Adult male rats were given access to both tap water acid one of five sol utions: 0.125% saccharin, 10% sucrose, ethanol, saccharin + ethanol, or suc rose + ethanol. The rats receiving the sucrose + ethanol solution drank con sistently more ethanol (> 5 g/kg/day) than did the rats receiving the sacch arin + ethanol solution (< 3 g/kg/day) or ethanol only (< 2 g/kg/day). Both sweetened solutions produced higher ethanol consumption during these perio ds than ethanol alone. However, no significant differences in blood ethanol levels were found between the sucrose+ethanol and saccharin+ethanol condit ions, when tested at different intervals on Day 44 or Day 45 of ethanol con sumption. Following 45 days of consumption, no change in the bicuculline se izure threshold was observed in the ethanol-consuming rats compared to the controls. In a separate study using 90 naive rats, rats were gavaged with e thanol (1, 2, or 3 g:kg) containing either 10% sucrose (n = 10 for each dos e of ethanol), 0.125% saccharin (n = 10 for each dose of ethanol), or ethan ol alone (n = 10 for each dose of ethanol), and blood was collected from th e tip of the tail 30, 60, 180, 300, and 540 min later and analyzed for etha nol concentrations. Sucrose significantly decreased the resultant blood eth anol levels at several time points following gavage. These results indicate that sucrose can significantly alter blood ethanol levels and that chronic self-administration of a sweetened ethanol solution for 6 weeks does not p roduce ethanol dependence. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserv ed.