Zeitschrift für Suchtforschung und -therapie

Abstrakt

Oral Nicotine Self-Administration in Rodents

Allan C Collins, Sakire Pogun, Tanseli Nesil and Lutfiye Kanit

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.