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The Impact of Sex and Exercise on Methamphetamine Preference in a Rat Animal Model
Author(s) -
Purpura Mari,
Kippin Tod E.,
Williams Serina,
Barkas Christina,
Adams Julia
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.2018.32.1_supplement.681.6
Subject(s) - methamphetamine , meth , addiction , conditioned place preference , reinforcement , stimulant , psychology , vulnerability (computing) , medicine , psychiatry , social psychology , chemistry , computer security , monomer , organic chemistry , acrylate , computer science , polymer
Methamphetamine (METH) abuse remains an extremely serious problem in the United States. METH has a long duration of action, and therefore leads to prolonged stimulant effects. Currently, there is limited information on the individual differences in vulnerability to substance use disorder (SUD) and how subject factors may impact the selection of METH over a competing reinforcer. Explore the factors contributing to addiction vulnerability for METH in an animal model by comparing sex, dose and ITI. Expand our understanding of the relation between exercise and addiction. If the reward for exercise and drug taking have overlapping circuitry, then engaging in exercise may reduce the need for drugs. To explore factors contributing to addiction vulnerability for METH in an animal model, we compared sex, dose (0.05 and 0.1 mg/kg/inf IV), short (20 s) or long (10 min) inter‐trial intervals (ITI) and the effects of exercise on the behavioral allocation of effort on drug taking. Rats were allowed voluntary exercise in Whamann wheels (6 hr/day, 4 weeks) followed by assessment of choice between METH (1 mg/kg/inf IV, FI20s) or food (2□3×45 mg, FI20s) reinforcement in standard operant chambers. There was a significant interaction between sex and dose (F,145)=5.765, p=0.021. ITI of 20 s and dose of 0.1 mg/kg/inf was the most preferred combination and females exhibited higher and more plastic (i.e. dose dependent) selection between METH over a competing reinforcer. There was a negative relationship between running wheel rotations/hour and preference for METH, and a significant effect of treatment (exercise versus control) amongst the METH preferring rats F(1,11)=5.133, p=0.045. Engagement of voluntary exercise may decrease vulnerability and increase resilience to the development of a SUD amongst a subpopulation that is initially METH preferring. Generally, the results of this study are consistent with the growing body of clinical and preclinical evidence demonstrating that females exhibit higher addiction vulnerability for stimulant drugs of abuse. This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal .