Long-term effects of chronic cocaine exposure during adolescence in the aggressive and social behaviour of young adult male rats

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Long-term effects of chronic cocaine exposure during adolescence in the aggressive and social behaviour of young adult male rats Cecilia Juliana Alves1, 2, A. Magalhaes1, L. De-Sousa1, 2, M. A. Tavares1, 3, P. R. Monteiro1, 4 and Teresa Summavielle1, 4* 1 Universidade do Porto, Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular (IBMC), Portugal 2 Instituto de Ciencias Biomedicas de Abel Salazar, Portugal 3 University of Porto, Faculty of Medicine, Portugal 4 Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde do Porto do IPP, Portugal This study aimed to evaluate the long-term effects of chronic cocaine exposure during adolescence in the aggressive behaviour of young adult male rats through the social threat provided by the resident-intruder paradigm. The neurochemical and stress-hormone response to the social threat were also evaluated. To achieve this objective it was developed an animal model of chronic cocaine administration during adolescence in Wistar rats. Adolescent males were submitted to a chronic “binge” pattern of cocaine-hydrochloride administration (3x15 mg/kg/day at hourly intervals; intraperitoneal), from postnatal day (PND) 35 to PND 50. Controls were given a 0.9% NaCl solution following the same experimental protocol. Ten days after the last administration of cocaine, rats were tested using the resident-intruder paradigm. Offensive, defensive and social behaviour were registered during 10 min. At the end of the test the substantia nigra and the ventral tegmental area (SN-VTA), the dorsal raphe nucleus, the amygdala, the hippocampus, the prefrontal cortex and the hypothalamus were collected for neurochemical determination. Plasma was also collected for corticosterone levels determination. Cocaine-treated male rats presented no differences in frequency, duration or latency of the offensive behaviours, however, these animals displayed increased duration of the anogenital sniffing behaviour, and increased latency and lower frequency of flight behaviour. Neurochemical data indicated that after the behavioural test cocaine-treated rats displayed lower levels of DOPAC in the hippocampus and lower 5-HT turnover rate in the SN-VTA. The corticosterone response to the resident- intruder paradigm did not differ between cocaine-treated and control animals. The results seem to indicate that although cocaine treatment during adolescence did not affected the aggressive behaviour of young adult rats; it affected social investigation that was increased by pre-exposure to cocaine. Consistently, the observed alterations in the dopaminergic and serotonergic systems were not associated with aggressive behaviour, but may have been relevant to the increased social investigation observed in cocaine-treated rats in response to the challenge provided by the test.Alves CJ was granted by FCT (SFRH/BD/17195/2004) Conference: 11th Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Neuroscience, Braga, Portugal, 4 Jun - 6 Jun, 2009. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Neuronal Communication Citation: Juliana Alves C, Magalhaes A, De-Sousa L, Tavares MA, Monteiro PR and Summavielle T (2009). Long-term effects of chronic cocaine exposure during adolescence in the aggressive and social behaviour of young adult male rats. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: 11th Meeting of the Portuguese Society for Neuroscience. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.01.2009.11.139 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 11 Aug 2009; Published Online: 11 Aug 2009. * Correspondence: Teresa Summavielle, Universidade do Porto, Instituto de Biologia Molecular e Celular (IBMC), Porto, Portugal, tsummavi@ibmc.up.pt Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Cecilia Juliana Alves A. Magalhaes L. De-Sousa M. A Tavares P. R Monteiro Teresa Summavielle Google Cecilia Juliana Alves A. Magalhaes L. De-Sousa M. A Tavares P. R Monteiro Teresa Summavielle Google Scholar Cecilia Juliana Alves A. Magalhaes L. De-Sousa M. A Tavares P. R Monteiro Teresa Summavielle PubMed Cecilia Juliana Alves A. Magalhaes L. De-Sousa M. A Tavares P. R Monteiro Teresa Summavielle Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.