Genotype-dependent effects of adolescent nicotine exposure on dopamine functional dynamics in the nucleus accumbens shell in male and female mice: a potential mechanism underlying the gateway effect of nicotine

摘要

The tendency to use cocaine is determined by genetic and environmental effects across the lifespan. One critical environmental effect is early drug exposure, which is both driven by and interacts with genetic background. The mesoaccumbens dopamine system, which is critically involved in the rewarding properties of drugs of abuse, undergoes significant development during adolescence, and thus may be at particular risk to repeated nicotine exposure during this period, thereby establishing vulnerability for subsequent adult psychostimulant use.