title: Design and development of a modified runway model of mouse drug self-administration.
abstract: The present study established a novel mouse model of a runway drug self-administration in our laboratory. The operant runway apparatus consisted of three long runways arranged in a zig-zag manner. The methodology consisted of six distinct phases: habituation, preconditioning, conditioning, post-conditioning, extinction and reinstatement. The effects of saline were compared with escalating doses of either ethanol (0.5-4.0 g/kg, i.p), heroin (5-40 mg/kg, i.p), or nicotine (0.1-0.5mg/kg, i.p) administered in the goal box during the conditioning phase (day 1 to day 5). A significant decrease in the time of trained (conditioned) mice to reach the goal box confirmed the subjects' motivation to seek those drugs on day 6 (expression). The mice were then subjected to non-rewarded extinction trials for 5 days over which run times were significantly increased. After 5 days of abstinence, a priming dose of ethanol or heroin (1/5th of maximum dose used in conditioning) significantly reinstated the drug-seeking behavior. These results suggest that the modified runway model can serve as a powerful behavioral tool for the study of the behavioral and neurobiological bases of drug self-administration and, as such, is appropriate simple but powerful tool for investigating the drug-seeking behavior of laboratory mice.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Vijayapandi
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pandy
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Yasmin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Khan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D000066949:Biobehavioral Sciences / Q000379:methods*; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D058999:Drug-Seeking Behavior; D000431:Ethanol / Q000008:administration & dosage; D005108:Extinction, Psychological; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D003932:Heroin / Q000008:administration & dosage; D007274:Injections, Intraperitoneal; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008813:Mice, Inbred ICR; D009042:Motivation; D009538:Nicotine / Q000008:administration & dosage; D012646:Self Administration / Q000523:psychology*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol; D009538:Nicotine; D003932:Heroin