Effects of Ethanol Exposure During Adolescence or Adulthood on Locomotor Sensitization and Dopamine Levels in the Reward System.

ABSTRACT: Behavioral sensitization is a process of neuroadaptation characterized by a gradual increase in motor behaviors. The major neural substrates involved in the behavioral sensitization lie on the dopaminergic mesocorticolimbic pathway, which is still under development during adolescence. To investigate age-differences in ethanol behavioral sensitization and dopamine levels in distinct brain regions of the reward system, adolescent and adult mice were repeatedly pretreated with saline or ethanol (2.0 g/kg i.p.) during 15 consecutive days and challenged with saline or ethanol 5 days after pretreatment. Dopamine and its metabolites were measured in tissue samples of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), nucleus accumbens (NAc) and striatum by HPLC analysis. While repeated ethanol administration resulted

SUBMITTER: Carrara-Nascimento PF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7067700 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature