Kappa-opioid receptor stimulation in the nucleus accumbens shell and ethanol drinking: Differential effects by rostro-caudal location and level of drinking.

ABSTRACT: Although the kappa-opioid receptor (KOR) and its endogenous ligand, dynorphin, are believed to be involved in ethanol drinking, evidence on the direction of their effects has been mixed. The nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell densely expresses KORs, but previous studies have not found KOR activation to influence ethanol drinking. Using microinjections into the NAc shell of male and female Long-Evans rats that drank under the intermittent-access procedure, we found that the KOR agonist, U50,488, had no effect on ethanol drinking when injected into the middle NAc shell, but that it promoted intake in males and high-drinking females in the caudal NAc shell and high-drinking females in the rostral shell, and decreased intake in males and low-drinking females in the rostral shell. Conversely, inject

SUBMITTER: Pirino BE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11319348 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature