Cellular nicotinic receptor desensitization correlates with nicotine-induced acute behavioral tolerance in rats

Rationale Individuals vary in their susceptibility to nicotine addiction. However, there is little evidence that behavioral sensitivity to nicotine is dependent upon the functional state of nicotinic cholinergic receptors (nAChRs). Objective This study aims to determine the relationship between in vivo behavioral desensitization and in vitro desensitization of nAChR function. Methods Male Sprague–Dawley rats trained to discriminate nicotine were tested for development of acute behavioral tolerance. The rats were injected with nicotine (0.4 mg/kg free base, s.c.), tested for nicotine discrimination for 2 min, then injected with the same dose of nicotine 90, 180, and 270 min after the first injection and tested for nicotine discrimination after each injection. Susceptibility of nAChRs of individual rats to desensitization was assessed by use of the 86 Rb + efflux assay using synaptosomes prepared from the “thalamus,” which included the hypothalamus and midbrain as well as the thalamic nuclei. To desensitize nAChRs, synaptsosomes were superfused with low concentrations of nicotine (5, 10, 20, and 30 nM) before stimulation of 86 Rb + efflux with nicotine (10 μM). Results The slopes of the behavioral desensitization were plotted as a function of the decline of nicotine-stimulated 86 Rb + efflux after in vitro desensitization. A significant correlation was observed between the in vitro desensitization of thalamic 86 Rb + efflux and the extent of behavioral desensitization of individual rats. Conclusions These findings are consistent with the idea that production of acute behavioral tolerance by nicotine is related to its ability to induce nAChR desensitization at the cellular level.