Project protocol - Contents
- Workflow and sampling
- Equipment and supplies
- Reagents and solutions
- Procedure: Nicotine preparation and administration
- Procedure: Somatic behaviors
- Procedure: Elevated plus maze
- Procedure: Fear conditioning, contextual fear, and cued fear
- Definitions and calculations
- Data
Workflow and sampling
withdrawal withdrawal 1c withdrawal 6.3 mg/kg/d Somatic signs, EPM, fear conditioning 1d withdrawal 12 mg/kg/d Somatic signs, EPM, fear conditioning *Withdrawal from chronic dose: delivered for 12 days via mini-osmotic pump, behavioral tests commence day 13.
Data for acute and chronic nicotine doses are available in Gould2.
Equipment and supplies
- Fear conditioning chambers (Med Associates, St. Albans VT) [17.8 x 19.1 x 38.1 cm]
- Cued fear conditioning chambers with vanilla extract olfactory cue [20.3 x 22.9 x 17.8 cm]
- Elevated plus maze [open arms: 7.6 x 30.6 cm; closed arms: 7.6 x 30.6 x 15.5 cm; center platform 7.6 x 7.6 cm; elevated 62.8 cm]
- Mini-osmotic pump (Alzet model 1002, Cupertino CA)
- MED-PC software (Med Associates, St. Albans VT)
Reagents and solutions
- Nicotine hydrogen tartrate salt (Sigma Co., St. Louis MO)
- Physiological saline
- 70% ethanol for cleaning
Procedure: Nicotine preparation and administration
- Nicotine hydrogen tartrate salt is dissolved in physiological saline; doses are reported in freebase weight.
- For withdrawal nicotine studies, mice are administered chronic doses of nicotine for 12 days via mini-osmotic pump implanted subcutaneously and are tested day 13 (doses = 0, 3, 6.3, 12 mg/kg/d).
Procedure: Somatic behaviors
Mice are assessed for somatic signs in a clean cage made of clear plastic filled with bedding; the cage is placed on a counter and episodes of grooming, scratching, jumping, shaking, and head nodding are recorded for 20 min in the same room used for EPM (below). Video recordings of each session are made and scored manually.
Procedure: Elevated Plus Maze (EPM)
Mice are placed in the center portion of the maze; time spent in all parts of the maze is recorded over a 5-min period (closed arms, open arms, and center). Video recordings of each session are made and scored manually with the assistance of custom software.
Procedure: Fear conditioning, contextual fear, and cued fear
Mice are exposed to a fear conditioning procedure followed by two independent memory tests: contextual and cued fear. Freezing (immobility) is defined as the lack of all movement other than respiration and is scored using a time-sampling procedure in which mice are observed during 10 s intervals and scored as either freezing or active.
- Mice are placed in the fear conditioning chamber; training begins with the activation of the house light; baseline activity is scored for 120 s; an 85 dB white noise (CS) is activated for 30 s and co-terminated with a 0.57 mA footshock (US) for 2 s; immediate freezing is scored for 120 s after the first CS-US pairing; a second CS-US pairing follows; training session ends with a 30-s interval during which freezing behavior is not recorded.
- Twenty-four hours later, contextual fear is assessed in the same fear conditioning chamber for 5 min; neither CS nor US are presented.
- One hour later, cued fear is assessed following a contextual shift (mice placed in a novel activity chamber); generalized (pre-cue) freezing is recorded for the first 3 min; CS is activated for an additional 3 min and cued fear conditioning is scored during this period (no US presented during this test).
Definitions and calculations
- Conditioned stimulus (CS): tone (85 dB, 30 s)
- Unconditioned stimulus (US): footshock (0.57 mA, 2s)
- Somatic signs: episodes of grooming, scratching, jumping, shaking*, head nodding*, total*
- Elevated plus maze: durations* in closed arms, open arms, center
- Fear conditioning: episodes* of freezing for baseline*, immediate, contextual, pre-cue, cue
* available in Supplementary data file only Gould3_suppdata.xlxs
MPD computed percentages for EPM and fear conditioning.