Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
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Query: UMLS:C0278080 (physical dependence)
 1,658 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Serum anterior pituitary hormone levels of genetically selected AA and ANA rats of Wistar origin as well as those of experimentally selected heavy drinkers (HD) and light drinkers (LD) among normal Wistar rats were studied. AA and HD rats consumed high doses while ANA and LD rats preferred low doses of ethanol. Serum thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), prolactin and growth hormone (GH) concentrations were measured by specific radio-immuno-assays before chronic ethanol administration, during physical dependence and on subsequent withdrawal. Basal TSH levels and TSH responses to cold were as a rule decreased in the course of ethanol intake and abstinence, whereas the TRH-induced TSH elevation became more consistent than before ethanol. There was no difference in basal prolactin levels between ethanol preferring and non-preferring rats at abstinence, whereas 30 min cold-exposure seemed to decrease them in HD and LD rats. The high prolactin levels before ethanol and during physical dependence appear to be caused by stress factors involved in the blood collecting procedure. GH levels were not significantly different in ANA, AA, LD and HD rats and neither ethanol intake nor subsequent withdrawal consistently modified GH levels. It is concluded that the observed minor alterations in the levels of anterior pituitary hormones hardly play any significant role in the development of alcohol dependence.
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PMID:Effect of chronic ethanol administration and abstinence on serum thyroid-stimulating hormone, prolactin and growth hormone concentrations in rats with high and low ethanol intake. 362

Among the many factors that may influence the development or expression of functional tolerance to or physical dependence on ethanol is the neurohypophyseal hormone, arginine vasopressin (AVP). This peptide hormone, administered exogenously, maintains ethanol tolerance in animals once such tolerance has been established. An analog of the hormone has also been reported to facilitate the development of ethanol tolerance and to exacerbate ethanol withdrawal symptomatology. Neurohypophyseal hormones and structurally related peptides have previously been shown to influence learning or memory; however, structure-activity analyses reveal differences in the structural requirements for maintenance of ethanol tolerance as compared to facilitation of memory processes. Therefore, these phenomena may represent CNS adaptive processes which are subserved by different mechanisms, or are differentially sensitive to particular peptides. The initial sensitivity of an animal to ethanol can also be affected by peptides, notably thyrotropin releasing hormone (thyroliberin, TRH). TRH antagonizes many of the initial responses to ethanol, perhaps by non-specific means. AVP, however, appears to potentiate the sedative effect of an acute dose of ethanol. Neurohypophyseal peptides also modulate ethanol intake. Thus, these neuropeptides, which have been localized to many areas of brain, may serve as endogenous modulators of various parameters related to ethanol consumption.
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PMID:Centrally acting peptides and tolerance to ethanol. 612 10

It has been shown that alcohol-motivated Wistar female rats after 10 days of repeated ethanol administration have a decreased cold- or TRH-stimulated TSH level in the blood serum under physical dependence and abstinence. There were no changes of TSH secretion in animals non-motivated to alcohol. Acetaldehyde inhibited significantly the TSH cold-response but did not influence the TRH-induced TSH secretion. It is suggested that repeated ethanol administration causes hypofunction of both hypothalamic TRH neurons and anterior pituitary thyrotropic cells. Partially it may depend on acetaldehyde inhibitory action on the hypothalamic level of regulation of thyroid gland functioning.
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PMID:[Effect of alcohol on serum thyrotropin concentration of rats predisposed and unpredisposed to alcohol]. 719 60