Figure 1

Chronic self-administration of alcohol in mice during adolescence. (A) Adolescent mice (3 weeks old) had free access to water and alcohol solutions. Two alcohol groups were used; one group had 5% alcohol (filled triangles), and the other had 10% alcohol (open triangles). Data are shown for daily alcohol consumption (grams of alcohol per kilogram mouse body weight per day, average over 5 days). Data are expressed as mean ± S.E.M. (n = 18 for each group). There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups at any time point (p > 0.05, two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post-test). (B) Alcohol preference over water (% v/v), from the same mouse alcohol groups as in (A), showing that mice from the 5% alcohol group consumed higher volume of alcohol solution than those from the 10% alcohol group. The average amounts of alcohol consumed by the 5% vs. 10% groups were not significantly different. (C) Alcohol consumption data of the mice used for microarray gene expression study. Mice used for the gene expression study were selected from the 5% (n = 9) and 10% (n = 10) alcohol group, respectively. Data are expressed as mean ± S.E.M. (n = 19). A steady increase of alcohol consumption was present, as the alcohol consumption data from later time points (day 40 and later) are significantly different from the data at the beginning (p < 0.05, Repeated measures ANOVA with post test of Dunnett's multiple comparison test).