EFFECTS OF CHRONIC ETHANOL TREATMENT ON THE POMC MESSENGER-RNA SYNTHESIS IN THE RAT PITUITARY

Recently a link between ethanol treatment, beta-endorphin content and POMC gene expression has been reported. These studies show contrary results for the POMC gene expression in the rat pituitary due to the kind of ethanol administration. So we decided to start a more complex study to investigate the effects of stress (single holding), chronic ethanol treatment and voluntary ethanol ingestion on the POMC mRNA synthesis in the rat pituitary. Total RNA from pituitaries of sacrificed rats was used in hybridization experiments (Dot-blots) with a POMC exon3-cRNA-probe (Digoxigenin-labelled). The resulting chemiluminogramms were quantified using a video-based image analysis system. The results suggest that the POMC gene expression in animals which have had the free choice between water and various alcoholic solutions was significantly more decreased than in animals chronically treated only with ethanol.