The relationship between stress and substance dependence in opioid receptor knockout mice.

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16H07463
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Applied pharmacology
• Research Institution: Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science
• Principal Investigator: MORIYA Yuki 公益財団法人東京都医学総合研究所, 精神行動医学研究分野, 研究員 (50783528)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-08-26 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: オピオイド受容体 / 依存性薬物 / 性差 / Addictive Disorders / Sex differences / alcoholic

Outline of Final Research Achievements

A complex relationship exists between alcohol-drinking behavior and stress. There are well-known sex differences in the epidemiology of alcohol dependence; however, the relationship between stress and alcohol consumption is poorly understood. This study assessed the effects of restrain stress on later ethanol intake using a two-bottle home-cage consumption (ethanol 8% vs. water) paradigm in WT and mu-opioid knockout mice. Restraint stress modestly increased ethanol consumption in female mu-opioid knockout mice but not in female and male wild-type mice. The locomotor activity with forced alcohol drinking among male and female wild-type and mu-opioid knockout mice were not significantly different.
The study shows that disturbances of mu-opioid receptors influences the behavioral consequences of ethanol consumption following stress in a sex-dependent manner.

Free Research Field

精神行動医学分野