Swimming as a measure of motor impairment after ethanol and pentobarbital in rats.

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Objective measurements of motor impairment induced by ethanol and pentobarbital were made by timing rats swimming a straight alley (3.05 .times. 0.31 .times. 0.61 m) to an escape ladder; the water temperature was 21.degree. C. Sprague-Dawley rats (9) received saline, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 or 2.0 g of ethanol/kg of body wt i.p. as a 10% solution in random order. The pentobarbital experiment was conducted using an identical design and procedure approximately 6 wk later; 5.0, 10.0, 15.0 or 20.0 mg of sodium pentobarbital or saline/kg were given i.p. The swim task produced monotonic dose-response relationships in 9 of 10 subjects over the dose range of 1.0-2.0 g of ethanol/kg and in all subjects between 5.0-15.0 mg of pentobarbital/kg. The swim task was a desirable means for quantifying motor impairment as effects are measured from predrug performance (there is no need to limit animals'' body weights), the task is easy to learn and since there is no painful stimulation, analgesic effects cannot influence the results.