Lactate promoted resilience to stress and rescued social avoidance and anxiety by restoring hippocampal class I histone deacetylase (HDAC) levels and activity, specifically HDAC2/3.
Adolescent alcohol exposure also leads to higher expression of HDAC2 and a deficit in histone acetylation leading to decreased expression of synaptic plasticity-associated genes and high anxiety and drinking behavior in adulthood.
The HDAC2 knockdown in the CeA attenuated anxiety-like behaviors and voluntary alcohol but not sucrose consumption in P rats and increased histone acetylation of Bdnf and Arc with a resultant increase in protein levels that correlated with increased dendritic spine density.