Premium
Gender Differences in Blood Levels, But Not Brain Levels, of Ethanol in Rats
Author(s) -
Crippens Donita,
White Martha L.,
George Magnia A.,
Jaworski Jason N.,
Brunner Lane J.,
Lancaster Francine E.,
Gonzales Rueben A.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
alcoholism: clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1530-0277
pISSN - 0145-6008
DOI - 10.1111/j.1530-0277.1999.tb04131.x
Subject(s) - estrous cycle , ethanol , medicine , endocrinology , hormone , alcohol , microdialysis , pharmacokinetics , distribution (mathematics) , intraperitoneal injection , biology , chemistry , central nervous system , biochemistry , mathematical analysis , mathematics
Female rodents tend to drink more alcohol than males, a difference that emerges at puberty and appears to vary over the female estrous cycle. In addition, male and female rodents display different responses to alcohol; for example, female rats are reported to have faster elimination rates than males. We were interested in whether circulating ovarian hormones influence alcohol distribution to or elimination from the brain of rats, which might explain observed differences in drinking behavior. We administered 0.8 g/kg of ethanol via intraperitoneal injection to age‐matched male and female Sprague‐Dawley rats. Extracellular brain ethanol was sampled using microdialysis, and vascular ethanol concentrations were determined via tail blood collection, in two separate experiments. Ethanol pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated for both compartments. There were no differences in pharmacokinetic parameters due to gender or estrous cycle stage in brain ethanol concentration profiles. There were, however, differences in blood ethanol profiles: females showed faster elimination rates and a smaller area under the ethanol concentration versus time curve than males. In addition, the maximum concentration varied significantly across the estrous cycle. These results suggest that (1) circulating ovarian hormones do not influence alcohol distribution to the brain, but do influence distribution to more peripheral tissues such as the tail; and (2) apparent differences in tail blood alcohol levels may not reflect differences in brain levels.