A PET Study on the Acute Effect of Ethanol on Striatal D2 Dopamine Receptors with [11C]Raclopride in Healthy Males

✍ Scribed by IIRIS SALONEN; JARMO HIETALA; ARTO LAIHINEN; PERTTI LEHIKOINEN; LASSE LEINO; KJELL NÅGREN; ULLA RUOTSALAINEN; VESA OIKONEN; TERHI TUOKKOLA; VEIKKO NÄNTÖ

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 146 KB
• Volume: 12
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0885-6222
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1099-1077(199703/04)12:2<145::aid-hup851>3.0.co;2-l

✦ Synopsis

The eect of acute oral ethanol intake (1 . 0 g/kg) on cerebral D2-receptors ([ 11 C]raclopride binding) was studied in seven healthy volunteers, using water and alcohol in two separate 59-min PET sessions. In the alcohol experiments, the blood ethanol concentration at the beginning of the imaging was 26Á4 +3Á8 mmol/l and remained stable during the PET session. Ethanol was not found to in¯uence binding of [ 11 C]raclopride to the dopamine D2 receptors in the human striatum, as indicated by the unchanged ratio B max aK d of the whole (left and right) striatum. The T max values of the control and ethanol experiments did not dier in the whole striatum, but the right to left dierence of striatal T max was turned from negative to positive by ethanol (P 0Á02). However, the dierence between hemispheres in B max aK d was not signi®cantly altered by ethanol intake. There was considerable interindividual variation in the response of all the above parameters to acute ethanol exposure. According to the present results, the acute eects of peroral ethanol exposure on striatal D2 receptor binding potential are of relatively small magnitude in man. However, the changes in T max suggest that ethanol may in¯uence the right±left dierence of [ 11 C]raclopride binding.