Authors: Martine C J van der Elst Eric W Roubos Bart A Ellenbroek Jan G Veening Alexander R Cools
Publish Date: 2004/10/19
Volume: 160, Issue: 4, Pages: 418-423
Abstract
Individual variability in behavioural responses to stressors such as novelty and drugs of abuse is a wellknown phenomenon in both animals and man These individual differences are largely associated with differences in dopamine transmission in mesolimbic areas such as the nucleus accumbens Apomorphinesusceptible APOSUS rats and apomorphineunsusceptible APOUNSUS rats serve as a valid animal model for individual differences and these two types of rat differ in a number of behavioural physiological endocrinological and pharmacological parameters In order to study the differences in the catecholaminergic network in the nucleus accumbens possibly underlying at least some of the differences between the two types of rat we quantified the extent of the tyrosinehydroxylase immunoreactive THIR network and the number of THIR varicosities in subareas of the nucleus accumbens core and shell in naïve rats This study shows that the nucleus accumbens of APOSUS rats has a more extensive fibre network and more varicosities than the nucleus accumbens of APOUNSUS rats and that the subarea of the shell contains more varicosities than the subarea of the core These data provide a basis for further studying the structural and neurochemical properties of the nucleus accumbens contributing to individual differences in response to stressors such as novelty and drugs of abuseThe authors wish to thank Dr DJ Heeren from the Department of Psychoneuropharmacology Nijmegen for statistical advice and Dr ES Pierson from the General Instruments Department of the Faculty of Science Mathematics and Computer Science Nijmegen for photographic assistance This study was supported by an NWO Grant number 98510016
Keywords: