Increased Consumption but Not Operant Self-administration of Ethanol in Mice Lacking the RIIbeta Subunit of Protein Kinase A

Accumulating evidence indicates that cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA) is involved in the neurobiological responses to ethanol. Previous reports indicate that mice lacking the RIIβ subunit of PKA (RIIβ−/−) voluntarily consume more ethanol than wild-type controls (RIIβ+/+) using two-bottle testing procedures. While such procedures primarily measure consummatory behavior, operant self-administration procedures allow analysis of consummatory as well as appetitive or “ethanol-seeking” behavior (i.e., lever pressing is required to gain access to the ethanol solution). Therefore, we determined if the high ethanol consumption characteristic of RIIβ−/− mice would be complimented by increased appetitive ethanol-seeking behavior in an operant paradigm