Striatal dopamine does not appear involved in the voluntary intake of ethanol by rats.

Ethanol preferring and non preferring rats were selected. Ethanol preferring rats showed a constant voluntary intake of a 12% ethanol solution during 14 days (about 5 g/kg body weight daily) while the non preferring rats drank less than 1 g/kg body weight daily. Preferring rats were daily IP injected with 5 or 10 mg/kg of nomifensine, an inhibitor of dopamine uptake. Their intake of ethanol solution remained constant during the 14 days of treatment. Dopamine uptake into striatal synaptosomes was identical in ethanol preferring and non preferring rats. These data, as others, led us to suppose that striatal dopamine is not involved in the voluntary intake of ethanol by rats.