Skip to main content
Log in

Reduced Oral Ethanol Avoidance in Mice Lacking Transient Receptor Potential Channel Vanilloid Receptor 1

  • Brief Communication
  • Published:
Behavior Genetics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Ethanol is a known oral trigeminal stimulant and recent data indicate that these effects are mediated in part by transient receptor potential channel vanilloid receptor 1 (TRPV1). The importance of this receptor in orally mediated ethanol avoidance is presently unknown. Here, we compared orosensory responding to ethanol in TRPV1-deficient and wild type mice in a brief-access paradigm that assesses orosensory influences by measuring immediate licking responses to small stimulus volumes. TRPV1−/− and control mice were tested with six concentrations of ethanol (3, 5, 10, 15, 25, 40%), capsaicin (0.003, 0.01, 0.03, 0.1, 0.3, 1 mM), sucrose (0.003, 0.01, 0.03, 0.1, 0.3, 1 M), and quinine (0.01, 0.03, 0.1, 0.3, 1, 3 mM) and psychophysical concentration-response functions were generated for each genotype and stimulus. TRPV1 knockouts displayed reduced oral avoidance responses to ethanol regardless of concentration, insensitivity to capsaicin, and little to no difference in sweet or bitter taste responding relative to wild type mice. These data indicate that the TRPV1 channel plays a role in orosensory-mediated ethanol avoidance, but that other receptor mechanisms likely also contribute to aversive oral responses to alcohol.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

References

Download references

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by NIH Grant AA015741. We thank Robert Robinson and Sara Kazemi for assistance with data collection. A portion of these data were presented at the 2007 meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, CA.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Susan M. Brasser.

Additional information

Edited by Tamara Phillips.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ellingson, J.M., Silbaugh, B.C. & Brasser, S.M. Reduced Oral Ethanol Avoidance in Mice Lacking Transient Receptor Potential Channel Vanilloid Receptor 1. Behav Genet 39, 62–72 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-008-9232-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10519-008-9232-1

Keywords

Navigation