Social Isolation induced cocaine sensitization during adolescence: is the sex of the rat an important factor.

RAMIREZ, ABRAHAM; FUNES, ALEJANDRINA; KONJUH, CINTIA; PACCHIONI, ALEJANDRA

Congreso; XXXVI Annual Meeting SAN 2021; 2021

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias

SocialIsolation induced cocaine sensitization during adolescence: is the sex of therat an important factorA. Ramirez1,2, A. Funes1, C. Konjuh1, M. Yoldjian1,A.M. Pacchioni 1,21Laboratorio de Toxicología Experimental, Departamento de Ciencias de losAlimentos y el Medio Ambiente, Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas yFarmacéuticas, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Rosario, Santa Fe, ARGENTINA. 2CONICET.Cocaine use disorder is a chronic diseasecharacterized by the loss of control over drug-seeking and taking. It has beenshown that transition between social use and loss of control, is mainlyobserved in vulnerable users; such susceptibility depends on environmental andbiological factors. Our group is focused on understanding the role of SocialIsolation (SI), as an environmental factor, and   sex as biological factor, in thevulnerability to cocaine exposure in rats. Recently, we showed that 5 days ofSI from postnatal days 30 to 35 (PND30-35) increases the response to cocaine inadult male rats. Also, previous results showed different behavioral responsesto isolation in male and female rats.  Inthe present study, we evaluate if 5 days of SI (PDN30-35) would induce cocainesensitization on PND45, in female and male rats. So far, our preliminaryresults show that cocaine (5mg/kg i.p.) induced a higher locomotor response in isolated female rats compared tonon-isolated ones; while in males cocaine induced a similar response in both groups.  However, more animals need to be run to drawa conclusion.  Moreover, animal’sbehavior during habituation will be analyzed. While future experiments willevaluate the levels of b-catenin in Prefrontal Cortex as a measured of Wntpathway activity. Our working hypothesis is that SI increases cocainevulnerability by decreasing the activity of Wnt canonical pathway in PFC ina sex dependent manner.