Genetic differences in ethanol-induced conditioned taste aversion after ethanol preexposure

The present studies examined the development of ethanol-induced conditioned taste aversion in C57BL/6J (B6) and DBA/2J (D2) mice with a history of ethanol preexposure. In Experiment 1, adult male B6 and D2 mice received four preexposure injections of either saline or 4 g/kg ethanol over an 8-day period. After preezposure, all mice were given five conditioning trials consisting of 1-h access to 0.15% w/v saccharin solution followed immediately by ethanol injections (4 g/kg, IP) on all but the last trial. Drug-naive D2 mice showed greater reductions in saccharin intake. Ethanol preexposure reduced the development of ethanol-induced taste aversion in each strain. However, B6 mice showed little taste aversion overall, hindering the characterization of genetic differences in ethanol's preexposure effect. To address this problem, the parameters for taste conditioning were changed in Experiment 2 to more closely match degree of taste aversion in drug-naive mice across both strains. B6 and D2 mice received four preezposure injections of either saline, 2 g/kg ethanol, or 4 g/kg ethanol. Subsequently, mice received five conditioning trials consisting of 1-h access to 0.2 M NaCl flavor followed by 4 g/kg ethanol (B6 mice) or 2 g/kg ethanol (D2 mice) on trials 1-4. Ethanol-naive mice of each strain developed similar levels of conditioned taste aversion. Ethanol preexposure produced greater retardation of conditioned aversion in B6 mice than in D2 mice. These results demonstrate genetic differences in the ability of ethanol preezposure to reduce the development of ethanol-induced conditioned taste aversion.