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Repeated Cocaine Self-Administration Causes Multiple Changes in Rat Frontal Cortex Gene Expression

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Abstract

Repeated cocaine administration produces changes in gene expression that are thought to contribute to the behavioral alterations observed with cocaine abuse. This study focuses on gene expression changes in the frontal cortex, a component of reinforcement, sensory, associative, and executive circuitries. Changes in frontal cortex gene expression after repeated cocaine self-administration may lead to changes in the behaviors associated with this brain region. Rats self-administered cocaine for 10 days in a continuous access, discrete trial paradigm (averaging 100 mg/kg/day) and were examined for changes in relative frontal cortex mRNA abundance by cDNA hybridization arrays. Among the changes observed following array analysis, increased nerve-growth-factor–induced B (NGFI-B), adenylyl cyclase type VIII (AC VIII), and reduced cysteine-rich protein 2 (CRP2) mRNA were confirmed by quantitative RT-PCR. These changes share commonalities and exhibit differences with previous reports of gene expression changes in the frontal cortex after noncontingent cocaine administration.

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  1. Willard M. Freeman

    Present address: Vollum Institute for Advanced Biomedical Research, Oregon Health and Science University, L474, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland, OR, 97239

  2. Karen Brebner

    Present address: Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia School of Medicine, 2255 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 2A1, Canada

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for the Neurobiological Investigation of Drug Abuse, Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Medical Center Blvd., Winston-Salem, NC, 27157-1083

    Willard M. Freeman, Karen Brebner, Kruti M. Patel, Wendy J. Lynch, David C. S. Roberts & Kent E. Vrana

  2. Abraham Ribicoff Research Facilities, Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, 34 Park St, New Haven, CT, 06508, USA

    Wendy J. Lynch

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Freeman, W.M., Brebner, K., Patel, K.M. et al. Repeated Cocaine Self-Administration Causes Multiple Changes in Rat Frontal Cortex Gene Expression. Neurochem Res 27, 1181–1192 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1020929526688

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