Voluntary adolescent alcohol exposure does not robustly increase adulthood consumption of alcohol in multiple mouse and rat models

ABSTRACT Adolescence is a period of increased risk taking, including increased alcohol and drug use. Multiple clinical studies report a positive relationship between adolescent alcohol consumption and risk of developing an alcohol use disorder (AUD) in adulthood. However, few preclinical studies have attempted to tease apart the biological contributions of adolescent alcohol exposure, independent of other social, environmental, and stress factors, and studies that have been conducted show mixed results. Here we use several adolescent voluntary consumption of alcohol models, conducted across four labs in three institutes and with two rodent species, to investigate the ramifications of adolescent alcohol consumption on adulthood alcohol consumption in controlled, pre-clinical environments. We consistently demonstrate a lack of robust increases in adulthood alcohol consumption. This work highlights that risks seen in both human datasets and other murine drinking models may be due to unique social and environmental factors – some of which may be unique to humans. HIGHLIGHTS Adolescent drinking-in-the-dark (DID) binge drinking does not increase adulthood consumption in a DID model or a two bottle choice model in male and female SST-Cre:Ai9 mice Adolescent pair-housed intermittent access consumption of alcohol does not increase adulthood consumption in an identical adulthood model in male and female C57BL/6J mice Adolescent intermittent access to alcohol does not increase adulthood consumption in male and female Wistar or Fischer 344 rats These complementary datasets across murine models, labs and institutions highlight the need to consider human social factors as well as biological factors