Abstract
Serotonergic dysfunction has been hypothesized to play an important role in the pathophysiology of alcoholism. However, whether congenital serotonin (5-HT) deficiency leads to increased alcohol consumption or affects ethanol-related behaviors has not been established. Here, we use a transgenic mouse line that expresses a hypofunctional variant of the 5-HT synthesis enzyme, tryptophan hydroxylase 2, to examine the impact of 5-HT deficiency on responses to alcohol. We demonstrate that these 5-HT-deficient transgenic animals (Tph2KI mice) recover their righting reflex more rapidly than wild-type controls following a high dose of ethanol and exhibit blunted locomotor retardation in response to repeated ethanol administration. In addition, compared to WT controls, 5-HT-deficient animals consume significantly more ethanol and exhibit increased preference for ethanol in two-bottle choice tests. Our data also suggest that 5-HT plays a critical role in mediating the effects of ethanol on Akt/GSK3β signaling in the nucleus accumbens. Overall, our results corroborate previous theories regarding the importance of brain 5-HT levels in mediating responsiveness to alcohol and demonstrate, for the first time, that congenital 5-HT deficiency leads to increased ethanol consumption and decreased sensitivity to the sedative-like effects of ethanol, perhaps in part through modulating Akt/GSK3β signaling.