Differential behavioral responses to cocaethylene of Long-Evans and Sprague-Dawley rats: role of serotonin.

Cocaethylene is a neuroactive metabolite derived from the concurrent consumption of cocaine and ethanol. The effects of cocaethylene on locomotor activity, stereotypy, and rearing in Long-Evans and Sprague-Dawley rats were compared. A single cocaine injection (molar equivalent of 60 mumol/kg cocaethylene, intraperitoneal) elicited a robust series of motor output behaviors, including locomotion, stereotypy, and rearing over a 30-minute testing period in Long-Evans rats. In contrast, cocaethylene administration, under comparable testing conditions, produced no significant changes in locomotor and investigatory behaviors. Because cocaethylene has relatively little impact on serotonin (5-HT) reuptake as opposed to reuptake of dopamine, we pretreated Long-Evans rats with fluoxetine (10 mg/kg; i.p.), a selective 5-HT reuptake inhibitor. Fluoxetine profoundly augmented cocaethylene-stimulated behaviors in this rat phenotype. To examine whether other rat strains exhibit a similar response to cocaethylene, Sprague-Dawley rats were injected (i.p.) with cocaethylene and their behavior patterns monitored over a 30-minute testing period. Cocaethylene produced marked locomotor and exploratory behaviors in this strain, suggesting therefore that Long-Evans and Sprague-Dawley rat differ in their response to cocaethylene. To relate these behavioral differences to possible structural differences in the neuronal density of dopaminergic or serotonergic neurons, Long-Evans and Sprague-Dawley brains were evaluated for tyrosine hydroxylase and 5-HT immunocytochemistry. No gross morphological differences in neuronal architecture or density were found in the ventral tegmental area or dorsal raphe nucleus of the two rat phenotypes. These results indicate that two commonly used rat strains show a differential response to cocaethylene and the neurochemical basis for this behavioral difference may be related to synaptic 5-HT bioavailability.