Astrocytes in the ventral pallidum extinguish heroin seeking through GAT-3 upregulation and morphological plasticity at D1-MSN terminals.

ABSTRACT: GABAergic projections from the nucleus accumbens core to the dorsolateral ventral pallidum are necessary for drug-conditioned cues to initiate relapse-like drug seeking. Astrocytes in the ventral pallidum are situated perisynaptically and regulate GABA transmission through expression of GABA uptake transporters, but whether they are involved in regulating drug seeking is unknown. To determine the contribution of ventral pallidal astrocytes to heroin seeking, we labeled astrocytes in male and female rats with a membrane-bound fluorescent tag and used confocal microscopy to quantify astroglial expression of the GABA transporter GAT-3 and astrocyte synaptic proximity after withdrawal from heroin self-administration and during 15 min of cued heroin seeking. We found that GAT-3 was upregulated

SUBMITTER: Kruyer A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9054673 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature