The effects of low level lead ingestion and chronic ethanol exposure on shock-elicited aggression.

Abstract

Adult male rats were exposed to 1 of 4 conditions for a period of 74 days. Group Wat was exposed to neither lead nor ethanol, Groups Pb and Pb-ETOH were exposed to a solution of 500ppm lead and Groups ETOH and Pb-ETOH received an injection of a 30% ethanol solution. Intraperitoneal injections were administered to all subjects each day for 15 days in the amount of .25cc/100g of body weight. On the 15th day, each subject received shock-elicited aggression testing 15 minutes after the daily injection. The results indicated that subjects in Groups Pb and ETOH made significantly more and longer duration-in-aggression responses than did those in Groups Pb-ETOH and WAT.