CUADRA GABRIEL RICARDO
Congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Perinatal protein malnutrition increases motor stimulant and rewarding cocaine effects in adult rats.
Autor/es:
CUADRA GR
Lugar:
Córdoba
Reunión:
Simposio; XXXVII Reunión Anual de S.A.F.E. (Asociación Argentina de Farmacología Experimental); 2006
Institución organizadora:
Asociación Argentina de Farmacología Experimental
Resumen:
Perinatal protein malnutrition induces long-lasting or permanent alterations in the CNS that may account for changes in the reactivity to diverse pharmacological treatments. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether neuronal alterations induced by perinatal undernutrition alter pharmacological reactivity to cocaine. Thus, motor stimulant and rewarding properties of cocaine were assessed, using an open-field or a Conditioned Place Preference (CPP) paradigm respectively, in adult recovered rats submitted to a protein malnutrition schedule at perinatal age (D-rats), and compared with well-nourished animals (C-rats). Dose-response curves obtained with different doses of cocaine used revealed a shift to the left in the locomotor activity curves of D-rats as compared with controls. Thus, D animals evidenced behavioral sensitization with the lowest dose of cocaine used, whereas this phenomenon was observed in C-rats only with the higher dose. A challenge with cocaine in subjects pre-exposed to cocaine, produced a different increase in dopamine output only in nucleus accumbens ?core? of D-rats. Furthermore, in the CPP paradigm dose-response curves to increasing doses of cocaine revealed in D-rats a conditioning effect with lowest doses; intermediate doses did not show any conditioning place preference and higher doses revealed a significant aversive effect. In C-rats, cocaine elicited place preference with intermediate doses, whereas higher doses did not show neither conditioning nor aversive effects. Sensitization to the conditioning effect of cocaine was obtained in D-rats with a low dosage of cocaine, which was ineffective in controls. Related to the higher rewarding effects, sensitized D-rats showed a selective and significant increase in FosB expression in nucleus accumbens (core and shell) and basolateral amygdala, brain areas related to the rewarding neuronal circuits. These results demonstrate that a deficient nutritional status during early life may induce in adult subjects an increased responsiveness to behavioral effects of cocaine and/or enhanced its reinforcement properties.
