title: Self-administration of ethanol, cocaine, or nicotine does not decrease the soma size of ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons.
abstract: Our previous observations show that chronic opiate administration, including self-administration, decrease the soma size of dopamine (DA) neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of rodents and humans, a morphological change correlated with increased firing rate and reward tolerance. Given that a general hallmark of drugs of abuse is to increase activity of the mesolimbic DA circuit, we sought to determine whether additional drug classes produced a similar morphological change. Sections containing VTA were obtained from rats that self-administered cocaine or ethanol and from mice that consumed nicotine. In contrast to opiates, we found no change in VTA DA soma size induced by any of these other drugs. These data suggest that VTA morphological changes are induced in a drug-specific manner and reinforce recent findings that some changes in mesolimbic signaling and neuroplasticity are drug-class dependent.
authors.affiliation: Fishberg Department of Neuroscience and Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, United States of America; Department of Physiology and Neuroscience Program, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, United States of America.
authors.forename: Michelle S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Mazei-Robison
authors.affiliation: Fishberg Department of Neuroscience and Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Raghu
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Appasani
authors.affiliation: Committee on the Neurobiology of Addictive Disorders, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, United States of America; Department of Physiology, Louisiana State University School of Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States of America.
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Edwards
authors.affiliation: Committee on the Neurobiology of Addictive Disorders, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, United States of America; Department of Molecular Therapeutics, Florida Campus, Scripps Research Institute, Jupiter, Florida, United States of America.
authors.forename: Sunmee
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wee
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America.
authors.forename: Seth R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America.
authors.forename: Marina R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Picciotto
authors.affiliation: Committee on the Neurobiology of Addictive Disorders, Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: George F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Koob
authors.affiliation: Fishberg Department of Neuroscience and Friedman Brain Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, United States of America.
authors.forename: Eric J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Nestler
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D048429:Cell Size / Q000187:drug effects*; D003042:Cocaine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D059290:Dopaminergic Neurons / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D000431:Ethanol / Q000494:pharmacology*; D008297:Male; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009538:Nicotine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012646:Self Administration; D017557:Ventral Tegmental Area / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol; D009538:Nicotine; D003042:Cocaine
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