Can intermittent sucrose treatments be used as a model to study withdrawal symptoms in CD-1 mice?

J. Elkins, Z. Woods, K. Brown, and T.D. Maze

The market for sucrose, commonly known as table sugar, has reigned as one of the most lucrative businesses in the world. Products that froth and crumble with surplus sugar are displayed as coveted treats for the Western culture in what is hypothesized in this study as the feeding of an addiction. By treating mice with an intermittent schedule of a 10% sucrose solution for 14 days, the use of an addictive substance was replicated. Water intake of the sucrose treated group and the non-treated group of mice was recorded every 12hrs for comparison to the sucrose intake of the sucrose treated group of mice. After a 5 day withdrawal period, mice were tested for withdrawal induced anxiety using an elevated plus maze. The elevated plus maze did not provide a significant difference between the times recorded in each area of the maze between treatment groups. This would have indicated more or less anxiety in the sucrose treated group than the non-treated group of mice. However, the results did show a binging pattern of sucrose intake compared to water intake between the sucrose treated mice and the non-treated mice. Previous studies had used a reward system to drive their addiction experiments which may have brought out behavioral factors not revealed in this study.

• Jessica Elkins is a junior majoring in biology and minoring in chemistry. She is the president of the Lander University Dental Association, member of Alpha Chi National Honors Society, and member of the Lander University Microscopy Association. Jessica is pursuing a career in dentistry for the smiles of the future.