Transcriptomic analysis of rat reward circuits in offspring of cocaine seeking parent

Previous studies indicate that the increase vulnerability and/or reduce resistance to drug addiction in descendants may contingent on highly motivated drug seeking experience of parent. However, How the neuroplasticity of the offspring changes is still unclear. Here, we analysis the 2 states (naive, after self-administration) transcriptome of 7 Reward-related brain areas (OFC, mPFC, NAc, dStr, Hippo, BLA, VTA) in offspring of cocaine self-administration/cocaine yoke/saline administration rat to reveal the neuroplasticity changes pattern of reward-related brain areas in offspring.

已有研究表明，子代对药物成瘾的易感性升高和/或抵抗性降低，可能取决于亲代的高强度觅药经历。然而，子代的神经可塑性（neuroplasticity）究竟如何发生改变，目前仍不明确。本研究针对可卡因自身给药（self-administration）、可卡因配对给药及生理盐水给药亲代的子代大鼠，对其两种状态（未经历药物暴露状态（naive）、自身给药后状态）下的7个奖赏相关脑区（眶额皮层（OFC）、内侧前额叶皮层（mPFC）、伏隔核（NAc）、背侧纹状体（dStr）、海马体（Hippo）、基底外侧杏仁核（BLA）、腹侧被盖区（VTA））的转录组（transcriptome）进行分析，以揭示子代奖赏相关脑区的神经可塑性变化模式。