Effects of fentanyl on acute locomotor activity, behavioral sensitization, and contextual reward in female and male rats.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Although fentanyl has gained widespread prominence, there remains a lack of knowledge on this opioid synthetic agonist, particularly related to sex effects. Therefore, we conducted behavioral tests in female and male rats to measure drug abuse-related responses to fentanyl hypothesizing sex-specific responses.

Methods

Using female and male rats, we measured the effects of acute or repeated administration of fentanyl (20 μg/kg) on locomotor activity (LMA) and behavioral sensitization in an open field test. We further measured contextual-reward and associated locomotor activity during training in a conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm using a low (4 μg/kg) or high (16 μg/kg) dose of fentanyl. Vaginal lavage samples were collected from female rats in the CPP s

SUBMITTER: Gaulden AD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8671359 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature