Nicotine increases dopamine clearance in medial prefrontal cortex in rats raised in an enriched environment.

Jun Zhu, Michael T. Bardo, Thomas A. Green, Peter J. Wedlund, Linda P. Dwoskin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

Environmental enrichment results in differential behavioral and neurochemical responsiveness to nicotine. The present study investigates dopamine clearance (CL(DA) ) in striatum and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) using in vivo voltammetry in rats raised in enriched (EC) or impoverished conditions (IC) and administered nicotine (0.4 mg/kg) or saline. Baseline CL(DA) in striatum or mPFC was not different between EC and IC. Across repeated DA application, striatal CL(DA) increased in saline-control EC and IC. CL(DA) increased in mPFC in saline-control IC; CL(DA) did not change in saline-control EC. Thus, enrichment differentially alters dynamic responses of the dopamine transporter (DAT) to repeated DA application in mPFC, but not in striatum. In EC, nicotine increased mPFC CL(DA) compared to saline-control, but had no effect on CL(DA) in IC; nicotine had no effect in striatum in EC or IC. Compared to respective saline-controls, nicotine increased dihydroxyphenylacetic acid content in striatum and mPFC in EC, but not in IC. Nicotine also had no effect on DA content in striatum or mPFC in EC or IC. Results indicate that enrichment eliminated the dynamic response of mPFC DAT to repeated DA application in saline-control and augmented the nicotine-induced increase in DAT function in mPFC, but not in striatum.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2575-2588
Number of pages14
JournalJournal of neurochemistry
Volume103
Issue number6
StatePublished - Dec 2007
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biochemistry
  • Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

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