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.
Sahraei
H
H
Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Baghyatallah (a.s.) University of Medical Sciences, Niavaran, Tehran, Iran. h.sahraei@bmsu.ac.ir
Pirzadeh-Jahromi
G
G
Noorbakhshnia
M
M
Asgari
A
A
Haeri-Rohani
A
A
Khoshbaten
A
A
Poorheidari
Gh R
GR
Sepehri
H
H
Ghoshooni
H
H
Zarrindast
M R
MR
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