Differential neurosensitivity to three alcohols and phenobarbital in C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice

Neurosensitivity to ethanol, t-butanol, 1,2-propranediol, and phenobarbital was assessed in C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice by means of the grid test, a measure of drug-induced ambulatory ataxia. In addition, blood and brain alcohol concentrations at the time of regaining the righting reflex were determined for ethanol and t-butanol. C57BL/6J mice were consistently more neurosensitive than DBA/2J mice to all four drugs on these two tests, but no strain difference was seen with regard to alcohol-induced hypothermia. These findings, and others reported in the literature, indicate that the strain differences in neurosensitivity are very much task dependent in that some measures yield no differences while other measures produce large differences between these two strains. Thus, one strain is not uniformly more sensitive to ethanol than the other across all measures.