BODY-TEMPERATURE IN MICE - QUANTITATIVE MEASURE OF ALCOHOL TOLERANCE AND PHYSICAL-DEPENDENCE

Abstract

Mice undergoing withdrawal after chronic ethanol consumption were hypothermic if kept at room temperature. The extent of the hypothermia correlated well with the behavioral withdrawal symptoms and could be used as a quantitative measure of the severity and time course of the withdrawal syndrome. Placing mice in a cold environment (4.degree. C) exacerbated the hypothermia; placing animals at 34.degree. C reversed the hypothermia and produced hyperthermia. The temperature set point mechanism and the ability to regulate around this set point was disturbed in animals physically dependent on alcohol. During consumption of the ethanol-containing diets, mice exhibited tolerance to the hypothermic effects of an acutely administered dose of ethanol. Tolerance to the hypothermic effects of ethanol mirrored the development of behavioral tolerance as measured by performance on a tilting plane. Temperature and behavioral tolerance extended well beyond the period of the withdrawal syndrome. Ethanol-treated mice were cross-tolerant to the hypothermic effects of barbiturates but not to the hypothermia produced by the monoamine oxidase inhibitor, pargyline.