Alcohol and Alcoholism Advance Access originally published online on August 2, 2004
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Alcohol & Alcoholism Vol. 39, No. 5, pp. 406-409, 2004
Alcohol & Alcoholism Vol. 39, No. 5 © Medical Council on Alcohol 2004; all rights reserved
HIGH ALCOHOL PREFERRING (HAP) AND LOW ALCOHOL PREFERRING (LAP) RATS SHOW ALTERED PROOPIOMELANOCORTIN (POMC) MESSENGER RNA EXPRESSION IN THE ARCUATE NUCLEUS
1 Department of Legal Medicine and 3 Department of Ophthalmology, Hyogo College of Medicine, 1-1, Mukogawa-cho, Nishinomiya, Hyogo, 663-8501, Japan, 2 LINE, Dorothy Hodgkin Building, Whitson Street, Bristol, BS1 3NY, UK and 4 Forensic Science Laboratory, Hyogo Prefectural Police Headquarters, 4-1, Shimoyamate-dori 5-chome, Chuo-ku, Kobe, 650-8510, Japan
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed at: Department of Legal Medicine, Hyogo College of Medicine, 1-1, Mukogawa-cho, Nishinomiya, Hyogo, 663-8501, Japan. Tel.: +81 798 45 6578; Fax: +81 798 49 3279; E-mail: kinochin{at}hyo-med.ac.jp
(Received 23 October 2003; first review notified 28 February 2004; in revised form accepted 10 May 2004; accepted 12 May 2004)
Aims and Methods: We have investigated proopiomelanocortin (POMC) and neuropeptide Y (NPY) gene expression in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus comparing high alcohol preference (HAP) rats and low alcohol preference (LAP) rats under basal conditions using in situ hybridization histochemistry.
Results: A significantly higher expression of POMC mRNA was observed in HAP rats compared with LAP rats. In contrast, no difference in NPY mRNA expression was observed between the two rat lines.
Conclusions: These data suggest that an endogenous opioid system may contribute to alcohol preference in HAP/LAP rat lines.