title: Loss of nicotine-induced behavioral sensitization in micro-opioid receptor knockout mice.
abstract: Repeated administration of nicotine produces behavioral sensitization. However, the possible mechanism of behavioral sensitization to nicotine remains unclear. The present study was undertaken in micro-opioid receptor knockout mice, to examine the hypothesis that micro-opioid receptors play a crucial role in behavioral sensitization to nicotine. All mice received saline or nicotine (0.05 mg/kg, s.c) twice a day for 7 consecutive days. The mice remained drug free for 3 days and on day 11 each group was challenged with saline or nicotine (0.05 mg/kg, s.c.). On day 1, it was observed that the single injection of nicotine (0.05 mg/kg, s.c.) did not influence locomotor activity in either micro-opioid receptor knockout or in wildtype mice. On day 7 (24 h after mice had been treated twice daily for 6 consecutive days with an injection of 0.05 mg/kg of nicotine), the mice were challenged with a single injection of nicotine, which produced behavioral sensitization in the wildtype but not in micro-opioid receptor knockout mice. On day 11, following 3 days of withdrawal after the second injection of nicotine on day 7, nicotine-treated mice were challenged with a single injection of nicotine and showed the behavioral sensitization of wildtype. However, nicotine challenge did not induce behavioral sensitization in micro-opioid receptor knockout mice. Our data indicate that a lack of micro-opioid receptors can inhibit the effects of nicotine-induced behavioral sensitization. This result strongly suggests that the micro-opioid receptor plays an important role in behavioral sensitization to nicotine.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology College of Pharmacy, Sungkyunkwan University, Suwon 440-746, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Ji-Hoon
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Yoo
authors.forename: Seok-Yong
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Horace H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Loh
authors.forename: Ing K
authors.initials: IK
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: Choon-Gon
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Jang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D018345:Mice, Knockout; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D009538:Nicotine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017450:Receptors, Opioid, mu / Q000172:deficiency* / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D017450:Receptors, Opioid, mu; D009538:Nicotine