High-fat diet withdrawal modifies alcohol preference and transcription of dopaminergic and GABAergic receptors

Abstract

The bidirectional and positive relation between the ingestion of fat and alcohol has become the subject of extensive discussion. However, this relation is more studied in animal models of binge eating with intermittent access of high-fat diet or in a model of short period of this diet consumption. Here, we developed a model to elucidate how chronic high-fat diet and its withdrawal influence alcohol intake (two-bottle choice) and anxiety behavior (marble burying test). In the first experimental stage, animals were fed on standard (AIN93G) or high sugar and butter (HSB) diet for 8 weeks. Then, a protocol of free-choice between water and a 10% alcohol solution was introduced, and the HSB diet was replaced with AIN93G in two experimental groups. The result obtained with this model point out that the relation among high-fat diet consumption and alcohol intake appears to depend on the presence or absence of the diet when alcohol intake is evaluated, and that an imbalance in the mesocorticolimbic dopaminergic pathway, observed by the transcriptional regulation of the dopamine receptors (Drd1/Drd2) and GABA_B receptors subunit (Gabbr1/Gabbr2), can be driving the alcohol intake.

Keywords:

• High-fat diet
• alcohol intake
• mesocorticolimbic pathway
• prefrontal cortex
• nucleus accumbens

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Conselho de Auxílio do Pessoal de Ensino Superior (CAPES) for fellowships awarded to Luana Martins de Carvalho, Ágatha Sandertoft Braga Pedersen, Samara Damasceno and Renato Elias Moreira Júnior.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais [FAPEMIG: APQ-02285–14] and PNPD/CAPES [23038.005051/2012–48].