Defense Date
2024
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Pharmacology & Toxicology
First Advisor
Dr. M. Imad Damaj
Second Advisor
Dr. Jennifer Wolstenholme
Third Advisor
Dr. Javier Gonzalez-Maeso
Abstract
Chronic pain affects nearly 20% of Americans annually and for many alcohol provides a convenient and legally acquired palliative. Population-based studies have suggested a link between increased alcohol use and reduced pain, but chronic or excessive alcohol use potentiates the risk to develop alcohol dependence and neuropathy. However, sex differences in chronic pain and alcohol abuse are still not well understood. In the present study, we investigated whether chronic inflammatory pain using the inflammatory agent Complete Freund’s Adjuvant (CFA) model could alter ethanol consumption in male and female C57BL/6J mice. We observed that only CFA-treated male mice increased their ethanol intake. This increase was completely blunted by prior administration of the KOR antagonist norbinaltorphimine (norBNI) to male mice. To expand on our model of inflammatory chronic pain we repeated our experiments using paciltaxel to induce chronic neuropathy. In contrast to the CFA results, the paclitaxel study showed decreased ethanol intake in male mice without affecting female intake. Finally, we explored the impact of prior ethanol exposure on ethanol intake in our CFA paradigm. CFA-treated female but not male mice with a prior history of ethanol consumption increased their ethanol intake and preference relative to their vehicle-treated counterparts.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
7-14-2024