ArticleThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience2020
Estrogen Receptor α Regulates Ethanol Excitation of Ventral Tegmental Area Neurons and Binge Drinking in Female Mice.
Article in The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 48 papers.
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Who cites it
48 citing papers in PubMed, 66 citations in OpenAlex.
- Synaptic Actions of Estradiol in the Brain's Reward System: Linking Mechanisms to Behavior and Disease.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Review
- Midbrain endocannabinoids actuate dopamine-based action selection.Cell reports · 2026Article
- Estrogen receptor alpha and beta chromatin interactions govern ovarian folliculogenesis but dissipate during ovulation.Endocrinology · 2026Article
- Adolescent onset of volitional ethanol intake normalizes sex differences observed with adult-onset ethanol intake and negative affective behaviors during protracted forced abstinence.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- The role of ovarian hormones in risk aversion in female rats.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Sex-Specific Effects of Hypocretin Receptor Signaling in Corticotropin-Releasing Factor Neurons on Alcohol Drinking, Anxiety, and Extended Amygdala Neuronal Excitability.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- Contributions of testosterone to excessive alcohol drinking in males: Potential role for interactions with the HPA axis.Alcohol (Fayetteville, N.Y.) · 2025Review
- Activation of anoctamin-1 calcium-activated chloride channels reduces voluntary alcohol consumption in rats.Neuropharmacology · 2025Article
- Stress and parental behaviors.Neuroscience research · 2025Review
- A Review of Sex and Gender Factors in Stimulant Treatment for ADHD: Knowledge Gaps and Future Directions.Journal of attention disorders · 2025Review
- Reward Neurocircuitry Predicts Longitudinal Changes in Alcohol Use Following Trauma Exposure.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2025Article
- Interactions of sex and stress in modulation of ventral tegmental area dopaminergic activity.Current opinion in behavioral sciences · 2025Article
- Adolescent Alcohol Exposure Dysregulates Developing Cortical GABA Circuits.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2025Review
- Rapid nongenomic estrogen signaling controls alcohol drinking behavior in mice.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Parvalbumin interneuron mGluNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Article
- Identification of Phosphodiesterase-7A (PDE7A) as a Novel Target for Reducing Ethanol Consumption in Mice.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Liver-specific glucocorticoid action in alcoholic liver disease: Study of glucocorticoid receptor knockout and knockin mice.Liver research (Beijing, China) · 2024Article
- Individual Behavioral and Neural Predictors of Future Alcohol Drinking Behavior.Biological psychiatry · 2024Article
- Sex differences in neuronal activation in the cortex and midbrain during quinine-adulterated alcohol intake.Alcohol and alcoholism (Oxford, Oxfordshire) · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 4 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Elevations in estrogen (17β-estradiol, E2) are associated with increased alcohol drinking by women and experimentally in rodents. E2 alters the activity of the dopamine system, including the VTA and its projection targets, which plays an important role in binge drinking. A previous study demonstrated that, during high E2 states, VTA neurons in female mice are more sensitive to ethanol excitation. However, the mechanisms responsible for the ability of E2 to enhance ethanol sensitivity of VTA neurons have not been investigated. In this study, we used selective agonists and antagonists to examine the role of ER subtypes (ERα and ERβ) in regulating the ethanol sensitivity of VTA neurons in female mice and found that ERα promotes the enhanced ethanol response of VTA neurons. We also demonstrated that enhancement of ethanol excitation requires the activity of the metabotropic glutamate receptor, mGluR1, which is known to couple with ERα at the plasma membrane. To investigate the behavioral relevance of these findings, we administered lentivirus-expressing short hairpin RNAs targeting either ERα or ERβ into the VTA and found that knockdown of each receptor in the VTA reduced binge-like ethanol drinking in female, but not male, mice. Reducing ERα in the VTA had a more dramatic effect on binge-like drinking than reducing ERβ, consistent with the ability of ERα to alter ethanol sensitivity of VTA neurons. These results provide important insight into sex-specific mechanisms that drive excessive alcohol drinking.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.