Nicotine exposure in adolescence alters the response of serotonin systems to nicotine administered subsequently in adulthood.
Developmental nicotine exposure produces lasting changes in serotonin (5-HT) function. We gave nicotine to adolescent rats (postnatal days, PD, 30-47), simulating plasma levels in smokers, and then examined the subsequent effects of nicotine given again in young adulthood (PD 90-107), focusing on 5-HT(1A) and 5-HT(2) receptors and the 5-HT transporter during nicotine treatment (PD 105) and withdrawal (PD 110, 120, 130), and long-term changes (PD 180). Adolescent nicotine exposure by itself evoked long-term elevations in cerebrocortical binding parameters in males that emerged in young adulthood. Nicotine given in adulthood produced transient elevations in 5-HT receptor expression in both males and females during withdrawal, and persistent upregulation in the male cerebral cortex. In contrast, females showed decrements in cerebrocortical 5-HT receptors by PD 180. Adolescent nicotine exposure altered the responses to nicotine given in adulthood, sensitizing the initial effects and changing both the withdrawal response and long-term actions. Our results thus provide mechanistic evidence that nicotine exposure, during the period in which nearly all smokers begin to use tobacco, reprograms the future response of 5-HT systems to nicotine.
Slotkin
Theodore A
TA
Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA. t.slotkin@duke.edu
Seidler
Frederic J
FJ
D000339:Affect / Q000187:drug effects; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D001933:Brain Stem / Q000187:drug effects; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D009538:Nicotine / Q000633:toxicity*; D018722:Nicotinic Agonists / Q000633:toxicity*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D044282:Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT1A / Q000187:drug effects; D044348:Receptors, Serotonin, 5-HT2 / Q000187:drug effects; D012701:Serotonin / Q000502:physiology*; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D013375:Substance Withdrawal Syndrome / Q000378:metabolism
D018722:Nicotinic Agonists; D044348:Receptors, Serotonin, 5-HT2; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins; D044282:Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT1A; D012701:Serotonin; D009538:Nicotine