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Social experiences affect reinstatement of cocaine-induced place preference in mice

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Abstract

Rationale

Drug addiction is a multifactorial disorder resulting from an interaction between genetic and environmental factors, and negative and positive environmental conditions may increase or reduce, respectively, vulnerability to drug addiction.

Objectives

The influence of different social experiences on the acquisition, extinction, and reinstatement of a cocaine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) was evaluated.

Methods

In experiment 1, adolescent and adult male OF1 mice housed under four different conditions (grouped, isolated, crowded, and cohabitating with a female) were conditioned with 50, 12.5, or 3.125 mg/kg of cocaine. All mice underwent extinction sessions until the CPP was extinguished. The effects of cocaine priming injections on the reinstatement of CPP were then evaluated. In experiment 2, the effect of different social experiences on the maintenance and reinstatement of cocaine-CPP in adult mice was studied.

Results

Although housing conditions did not affect the acquisition of cocaine-CPP, it did modify reinstatement after extinction. Adolescent mice living in crowded conditions or cohabitating with a female did not present reinstatement after cocaine priming. Similarly, neither isolated adult mice nor adults cohabitating with a female presented reinstatement. In grouped adult mice, isolation after acquisition of the CPP and social defeat before reinstatement increased the vulnerability to reinstatement induced by cocaine priming. Conversely, both exposure to females and a brief social interaction undermined cocaine-induced reinstatement.

Conclusions

Social experiences modify vulnerability to reinstatement, acting as prevention or risk factors in the development of drug addiction.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the following grants: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Dirección General de Investigación (PSI2008-00101/PSIC), Instituto de Salud “Carlos III” (FIS), RETICS, Red de Trastornos Adictivos (RD06/001/0016), Generalitat Valenciana, Conselleria de Educación (PROMETEO/2009/072), and Agencia Valenciana de Salud, Dirección General de Drogodependencias (FEPAD), Spain.

We wish to thank Mr. Brian Normanly for the English language revision of the manuscript and Ana Diaz for her careful supervision of the animals.

All experiments complied with current Spanish law.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unidad de Investigación Psicobiología de las Drogodependencias. Departamento de Psicobiología, Facultad de Psicología, Universitat de Valencia, Avda. Blasco Ibáñez, 21, 46010, Valencia, Spain

    Maria A. Aguilar, Javier Lluch, Marta Rodríguez-Arias & Jose Miñarro

  2. Departamento de Anatomía Humana y Psicobiología, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de Murcia, Campus de Espinardo, 30100, Murcia, Spain

    Bruno Ribeiro Do Couto

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  1. Bruno Ribeiro Do Couto
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  2. Maria A. Aguilar
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  5. Jose Miñarro
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Correspondence to Jose Miñarro.

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Ribeiro Do Couto, B., Aguilar, M.A., Lluch, J. et al. Social experiences affect reinstatement of cocaine-induced place preference in mice. Psychopharmacology 207, 485–498 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-009-1678-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-009-1678-1

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