Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Missouri-St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63121, USA.
Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2010 Apr;95(2):139-45. doi: 10.1016/j.pbb.2009.12.018. Epub 2010 Jan 13.
Research has reported that nicotine can increase accuracy, response times and rates of learning with evidence of different effects on males and females. The goal of our research was to study further sex differences by examining the role played by estrogen in the effects of nicotine on learning and memory in female rats. In experiment 1, 48 male and female rats were administered 0.3 mg or 0.7 mg/kg bwt of nicotine (nic) or vehicle only (veh) and tested in a visual spatial orientation (VSO) paradigm designed to maximize the benefits of nicotine on spatial working memory. Females exposed to 0.3 mg nic performed superior to all other groups of both genders. In experiment 2, ovariectomized females (N=40) were exposed to 30 microg estradiol/kg bwt (E2), 3 mg nicotine/kg bwt, a combination of both E2 and nic, or veh, and tested as in experiment 1. The rankings of scores in the VSO task by group were E2+nic>nic alone>E2 alone>veh. The E2+nic combination group also demonstrated the highest rate of acquisition. Collectively, the findings suggest that estrogen can synergize the ability of chronic nicotine to enhance acetylcholine-hippocampal interactions underlying performance in the VSO paradigm.
研究报告称，尼古丁可以提高准确性、反应时间和学习速度，并且对男性和女性有不同的影响。我们的研究目的是通过研究雌激素在尼古丁对雌性大鼠学习和记忆的影响中的作用，进一步研究性别差异。在实验 1 中，48 只雄性和雌性大鼠给予 0.3mg 或 0.7mg/kg 体重的尼古丁（nic）或仅给予载体（veh），并在视觉空间定向（VSO）范式中进行测试，该范式旨在最大限度地提高尼古丁对空间工作记忆的益处。暴露于 0.3mg nic 的雌性表现优于所有其他性别组。在实验 2 中，去卵巢雌性大鼠（N=40）给予 30 微克/千克体重的雌二醇（E2）、3 毫克/千克体重的尼古丁、E2 和 nic 的混合物，或 veh，并按实验 1 进行测试。VSO 任务中按组划分的分数排名为 E2+nic>nic 单独>E2 单独>veh。E2+nic 混合物组也表现出最高的习得率。总的来说，这些发现表明，雌激素可以协同慢性尼古丁增强乙酰胆碱-海马相互作用的能力，从而提高在 VSO 范式中的表现。
