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Differential effects of pair housing on voluntary nicotine consumption: a comparison between male and female adolescent rats

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Abstract

Rationale

Tobacco smoking occurs in a wide array of social circumstances. Social support for quitting is generally used to stop smoking, while peer interactions may be a crucial factor in triggering tobacco use among adolescents.

Objectives

To determine the role of social factors on nicotine dependence, we compared single- and pair-housed rats subjected to voluntary oral nicotine consumption tests.

Methods

Six-week-old adolescent rats were subjected to experimental procedures and assigned to one of the following groups: a male single group, a male pair group with a sibling, a female single group, and a female pair group with a sibling. To measure voluntary nicotine intake, we adopted a two-bottle free-choice paradigm for each two days using 25 μg/ml and 100 μg/ml nicotine solution.

Results

There were no differences in change in body weight or food intake between the two groups of either sex. Pair-housed female rats showed a reduction in nicotine consumption and preference for both low- and high-dose nicotine solution, while pair-housed male rats showed only reduced consumption and preference for high-dose nicotine solution, but not low-dose solution, as compared to single-housed male rats.

Conclusions

Nicotine consumption is sex-dependently controlled by the social circumstances of rats. This study broadens our perspectives on the role of social interactions as a therapeutic strategy to treat nicotine addiction-related behaviors depending on sex.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Taesub Jung for helpful discussions. This research was supported by Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (NRF-2013R1A1A1057712 and NRF-2014R1A2A2A04007391).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Science Education, Dankook University, 152 Jukjeon-ro, Suji-gu, Yongin-si, Gyeonggi-do, 16890, Republic of Korea

    Hyunchan Lee, Minji Jang, Woonhee Kim & Jihyun Noh

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  1. Hyunchan Lee
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  2. Minji Jang
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  3. Woonhee Kim
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  4. Jihyun Noh
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Correspondence to Jihyun Noh.

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All experiments were conducted following the ethics committee’s guidelines for the care and use of laboratory animals of Dankook University (DKU-15-015).

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Lee, H., Jang, M., Kim, W. et al. Differential effects of pair housing on voluntary nicotine consumption: a comparison between male and female adolescent rats. Psychopharmacology 234, 2463–2473 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-017-4636-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-017-4636-3

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