Grid1 expression in female rats at 14 days withdrawal from chronic intermittent ethanol exposure
Description
Substance use disorders are some of the most therapeutically challenging chronic health issues in medicine, and they contribute a large burden on individuals and the health care system. Developing effective treatment plans depends on understanding how these use disorders develop and how they are maintained across an individual’s life span. It is known that during withdrawal from drug use, functional alterations occur that accentuate the user’s risk to return to drugs. The current study seeks to explore one of these alterations, the expression of Grid1, a delta type glutamate receptor that contributes to the formation of synaptic contacts between neurons. We hypothesize that Grid1 is dynamically regulated in response to withdrawal state dependent alterations in glutamate receptor function. To conduct these studies, female rats were exposed to ethanol vapor and then placed into forced abstinence of 14 days. Brains were extracted and treated with sulfo-NHS-S-S-Biotin to label extracellular proteins. Using western blot techniques and Grid1 antibodies we measured the relative amount of protein expression in our samples in comparison to control animals using students t-tests (p< 0.05 for significance). We expect preliminary results to indicate an increase in Grid1 expression as compared to baseline. These data will be combined across a range of withdrawal times to gain a clearer understanding of how Grid1 expression is regulated during ethanol withdrawal.
Citation Information
Bowlin, Alayna; Giles, Jennifer; Boyer, Michael; and Christian, Daniel T., "Grid1 expression in female rats at 14 days withdrawal from chronic intermittent ethanol exposure" (2026). Office of Research DMU Research Symposium. 79.
https://digitalcommons.dmu.edu/researchsymposium/2025rs/2025abstracts/79
Grid1 expression in female rats at 14 days withdrawal from chronic intermittent ethanol exposure
Substance use disorders are some of the most therapeutically challenging chronic health issues in medicine, and they contribute a large burden on individuals and the health care system. Developing effective treatment plans depends on understanding how these use disorders develop and how they are maintained across an individual’s life span. It is known that during withdrawal from drug use, functional alterations occur that accentuate the user’s risk to return to drugs. The current study seeks to explore one of these alterations, the expression of Grid1, a delta type glutamate receptor that contributes to the formation of synaptic contacts between neurons. We hypothesize that Grid1 is dynamically regulated in response to withdrawal state dependent alterations in glutamate receptor function. To conduct these studies, female rats were exposed to ethanol vapor and then placed into forced abstinence of 14 days. Brains were extracted and treated with sulfo-NHS-S-S-Biotin to label extracellular proteins. Using western blot techniques and Grid1 antibodies we measured the relative amount of protein expression in our samples in comparison to control animals using students t-tests (p< 0.05 for significance). We expect preliminary results to indicate an increase in Grid1 expression as compared to baseline. These data will be combined across a range of withdrawal times to gain a clearer understanding of how Grid1 expression is regulated during ethanol withdrawal.
