Exposure to environmental enrichment attenuates addiction-like behavior and alters molecular effects of heroin self-administration in rats.

ABSTRACT: Environmental factors profoundly affect the addictive potential of drugs of abuse and may also modulate the neuro-anatomical/neuro-chemical impacts of uncontrolled drug use and relapse propensity. This study examined the impact of environmental enrichment on heroin self-administration, addiction-related behaviors, and molecular processes proposed to underlie these behaviors. Male Sprague-Dawley rats in standard and enriched housing conditions intravenously self-administered similar amounts of heroin over 14 days. However, environmental enrichment attenuated progressive ratio, extinction, and reinstatement session responding after 14 days of enforced abstinence. Molecular mechanisms, namely DNA methylation and gene expression, are proposed to underlie abstinence-persistent behaviors. A glob

SUBMITTER: Imperio CG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6067959 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature