Alcohol-induced conditioned taste aversion in rats. Effect of concentration and prior exposure to alcohol.

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Abstract
The development of alcohol-induced taste aversion was examined in 80 female Sprague-Dawley rats maintained on a fluid-deprivation schedule that allowed fluid during 10 min/day. After their preference for grape- or orange-flavored sugared Kool-Aid (a powdered-fruit-juice solution) was determined, the rats were subjected to a 20-day preconditioning period wherein sugar water (the same formula as the Kool-Aid solution but without the flavor) without alcohol (pharmacologically naive rats) or sugar water with 3, 5 or 7% alcohol (experienced rats) was presented. During the subsequent 10-day conditioning period the rats could choose 7% alcohol-sugar water or the preferred Kool-Aid solution mixed with alcohol to obtain 3, 5 or 7% solutions. (The experienced rats received the same alcohol concentration as during preconditioning.) During the subsequent 10-day postconditioning they could choose between the 2 Kool-Aid flavors. During preconditioning the volume of fluid intake varied inversely with its alcohol concentration; the intake of 3% alcohol solution and sugar water were equal. The mean daily intake of absolute alcohol increased with the alcohol concentration: 1.62, 2.44 and 2.89/kg body wt from the 3, 5 and 7% solutions, respectively. During conditioning the experienced rats drank less of the 3% (daily means, 1.04 vs. 1.16 g of alcohol/kg), the same amount of the 5% (1.71 g/kg) and more of the 7% solution (2.17 vs. 1.81 g/kg) than the naive rats. The results of the first 2 days of postconditioning indicated that conditioning with 5 and 7% alcohol reduced the selection of the initially preferred Kool-Aid flavor both in the experienced and naive rats; the differences between naive and experienced rats or between rats that received 5% and those that received 7% solutions were not significant. Treatment with 3% alcohol did not alter the flavor preference of either the naive or experienced rats. An additional 30 rats were subjected to the same paradigm up to and including the 1st day of conditioning and their blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) were measured from 5-185 min after the 10 min drinking session. The BACS were similar in the naive and experienced rats. The intake of absolute alcohol and the peak BAC values increased with increasing alcohol concentrations of the offered solutions. The BAC produced by the ingestion of 5 or 7% alcohol during the conditioning period resulted in the preferred flavor becoming secondarily aversive. Although the BAC accompanying 7% was larger than at 5%, it was suggested that the maximum aversiveness, as measured by post-conditioning preference tests, had already been attained at the 5% concentration.

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