Tobacco particulate matter self-administration in rats: differential effects of tobacco type.

Nicotine self-administration in rats is the most widely used animal model of tobacco dependence. There is increasing evidence, however, that non-nicotinic constituents in smoke contribute to addiction and that different tobacco products contain varying levels of these constituents. The present study firstly sought to compare self-administration of pure nicotine to tobacco particulate matter (TPM) to determine if there were differences in reward-efficacy attributable to the non-nicotine constituents.

The effects of nicotine and tobacco particulate matter on dopamine uptake in the rat brain.

Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death worldwide. Recently, tobacco extracts have been shown to have a different pharmacological profile to nicotine alone and there is increasing evidence of a role for non-nicotinic components of cigarette smoke in smoking addiction. Nicotine is known to affect the uptake of dopamine in the brain of laboratory animals, but studies in the literature are often contradictory and little is known of the effects on non-nicotinic tobacco components on dopamine uptake.

Nicotine-, tobacco particulate matter- and methamphetamine-produced locomotor sensitisation in rats.

Rationale: Repeated nicotine exposure produces a weak and transient sensitised locomotor response in rats. Since tobacco smoke contains thousands of non-nicotine chemical constituents, these could alter the sensitised response.

Objectives: This study aims to compare the magnitude, persistence and spatial distribution of locomotor sensitisation produced by repeated doses of nicotine, aqueous tobacco particulate matter (TPM) and a positive methamphetamine control.