Involvement of nucleus accumbens in L-arginine-induced conditioned place preference in rats.
In the present study, the effects of intraperitoneal, intra-accumbal and intra-ventral tegmental area administration of L-arginine and N(G)-nitro-L-arginine methyl-ester (L-NAME) on conditioned place preference behavior were studied. Intraperitoneal (i.p.; 0.5, 1 and 5 mg/kg) and intra-accumbal (intra-NAc; 0.3, 1 and 3 microg/rat), but not intra-ventral tegmental area (intra-VTA; 0.3, 1 and 3 microg/rat) administrations of L-arginine produced a significant place conditioning. Similar injections of L-NAME did not produce any response. However, intraperitoneal pretreatment of the animals with L-NAME (5, 10 and 20 mg/kg), 30 min before L-arginine administration, significantly abolished the acquisition of place conditioning induced by either intraperitoneal or intra-accumbal injection of L-arginine. Moreover, injection of L-NAME (5, 10 and 20 mg/kg) on the test day did not alter the L-arginine response. The results may indicate that L-arginine induces conditioned place preference via an increase in nitric oxide (NO) in the nucleus accumbens.
Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Baghyatallah (a.s.) University of Medical Sciences, Niavaran, Tehran, Iran. h.sahraei@bmsu.ac.ir
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Sahraei
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Pirzadeh-Jahromi
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Noorbakhshnia
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Asgari
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Haeri-Rohani
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Khoshbaten
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Poorheidari
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Sepehri
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Ghoshooni
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Zarrindast
D000818:Animals; D001120:Arginine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001245:Association Learning / Q000187:drug effects*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D007263:Infusions, Parenteral; D008297:Male; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000032:analysis; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
D009569:Nitric Oxide; D001120:Arginine