Rapid nongenomic estrogen signaling controls alcohol drinking behavior in mice

Lia J. Zallar, Jean K. Rivera-Irizarry, Peter U. Hamor, Irena Pigulevskiy, Ana-Sofia Rico Rozo, Hajar Mehanna, Dezhi Liu, Jacqueline P. Welday, Rebecca Bender, Joseph J. Asfouri, Olivia B. Levine, Mary Jane Skelly, Colleen K. Hadley, Kristopher M. Fecteau, Scottie Nelson, John Miller, Pasha Ghazal, Peter Bellotti, Ashna Singh, Lauren V. Hollmer, David W. Erikson, Jacob Geri and Kristen E. Pleil ()
Additional contact information
Lia J. Zallar: Cornell University
Jean K. Rivera-Irizarry: Cornell University
Peter U. Hamor: Cornell University
Irena Pigulevskiy: Cornell University
Ana-Sofia Rico Rozo: Cornell University
Hajar Mehanna: Cornell University
Dezhi Liu: Cornell University
Jacqueline P. Welday: Cornell University
Rebecca Bender: Cornell University
Joseph J. Asfouri: Cornell University
Olivia B. Levine: Cornell University
Mary Jane Skelly: Cornell University
Colleen K. Hadley: Weill Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan Kettering Tri-institutional MD-PhD Program
Kristopher M. Fecteau: Oregon National Primate Research Center
Scottie Nelson: Cornell University
John Miller: Cornell University
Pasha Ghazal: Cornell University
Peter Bellotti: Cornell University
Ashna Singh: Cornell University
Lauren V. Hollmer: Cornell University
David W. Erikson: Oregon National Primate Research Center
Jacob Geri: Cornell University
Kristen E. Pleil: Cornell University

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Abstract Ovarian-derived estrogen can signal non-canonically at membrane-associated receptors in the brain to rapidly regulate neuronal function. Early alcohol drinking confers greater risk for alcohol use disorder in women than men, and binge alcohol drinking is correlated with high estrogen levels, but a causal role for estrogen in driving alcohol drinking has not been established. We found that female mice displayed greater binge alcohol drinking and reduced avoidance when estrogen was high during the estrous cycle than when it was low. The pro-drinking, but not anxiolytic, effect of high endogenous estrogen occurred via rapid signaling at membrane-associated estrogen receptor alpha in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, which promoted synaptic excitation of corticotropin-releasing factor neurons and facilitated their activity during alcohol drinking. Thus, this study demonstrates a rapid, nongenomic signaling mechanism for ovarian-derived estrogen in the brain controlling behavior in gonadally intact females.

Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-54737-6 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:15:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-024-54737-6

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-54737-6

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().