Subchronic treatment of rats with nicotine: interconversion of nicotinic receptor subtypes in brain.
A significant increase in the number of cortical high-affinity (-)-[3H]nicotine binding sites was measured in rats treated with nicotine (0.45 mg/kg) twice daily for 18 days. Competition experiments with (-)-[3H]nicotine and various concentrations of unlabelled (-)-nicotine revealed that the proportion of high-affinity nicotine binding sites was significantly increased in the nicotine-treated group while the proportion of low-affinity nicotinic binding sites was similarly significantly reduced compared to the controls. In addition there was a significant decrease in the affinity of both subtypes of nicotinic binding sites.
Romanelli
L
L
Department of Pharmacology, University of Uppsala, Sweden.
Ohman
B
B
Adem
A
A
Nordberg
A
A
D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D004334:Drug Administration Schedule; D008297:Male; D009538:Nicotine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000494:pharmacology*; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D011978:Receptors, Nicotinic / Q000145:classification / Q000378:metabolism*
D011978:Receptors, Nicotinic; D009538:Nicotine