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Hindi Review Article
Oral Nicotine Self-Administration in Rodents
Allan C Collins2, Sakire Pogun1*, Tanseli Nesil1 and Lutfiye Kanit11Center for Brain Research, Ege University, Bornova, Izmir, Turkey
2Institute for Behavioral Genetics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA
- *Corresponding Author:
- Sakire Pogun
Ege University, Center for Brain Research
Bornova, 35100, Izmir, Turkey
Tel: +90 532 5846272
Fax: +90 232 3746597
E-mail: sakire.pogun@ege.edu.tr
strong>Received April 18, 2012; Accepted May 15, 2012; Published May 18, 2012
Citation: Pogun S, Collins AC, Nesil T, Kanit L (2012) Oral Nicotine Self- Administration in Rodents. J Addict Res Ther S2:004. doi:10.4172/2155-6105.S2-004
Copyright: © 2012 Pogun S, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Nicotine addiction is a complex process that begins with self-administration. Consequently, this process has been studied extensively using animal models. A person is usually not called “smoker” if s/he has smoked for a week or a month in a lifetime; in general, a smoker has been smoking for many years. Furthermore, a smoker has free access to cigarettes and can smoke whenever she/he wants, provided there are no social/legal restraints. Subsequently, in an animal model of tobacco addiction, it will be desirable to expose the animal to free access nicotine for 24 hours/day for many weeks, starting at different stages of development.
Oral nicotine self-administration studies in rodents present some important advantages and mimic human smoking nicely. For example, animals are not food deprived, are exposed to nicotine choice for up to 24 hours a day for extended periods, environmental cues and learning does not interfere with self-administration of nicotine. Oral alcohol selfadministration has been used in rodents for over five decades and has contributed significantly to the understanding of alcohol addiction.
We provide a review of literature and compare oral alcohol and nicotine intake in rodents. Methodological issues, post ingestional and systemic effects, discrimination and the important influences of taste, genetic vulnerability, sex and age on intake are discussed. The review ends with recommendations for future research on oral self-administration of nicotine.
