Exploiting Mouse Models to Understand Female Hypersensitivity to Cocaine

Male mice, female mice, ovariectomized female mice given placebo pellets, and ovariectomized female mice given extradiol pellets were treated with experimenter-administered saline or cocaine for 7 days, and behaviorally monitored. After a 28 day withdrawal period, RNA samples were prepared from nucleus accumbens and subjected to RNA-Seq, followed by differential expression analyses using Cuffdiff, Limma and DESeq2. Selected transcripts were further investigated using quantitative polymerase chain reaction. After surgeries and non-operated controls, mice were administered saline or cocaine, and behaviorally analyzed. After withdrawal from drugs, nucleus accumbens RNA was used for RNA-Seq and qPCR analyses.