Figure 1.

Cocaine self-administration regulates β3 integrin subunit expression in the NAcore. A, All rats were trained to self-administer cocaine and some were extinguished and killed either after a needle stick (time = 0) or 30 or 120 min after a cocaine (15 mg/kg, i.p.) injection. *p < 0.05, compared with extinction lever pressing using a two-way ANOVA (interaction F_(3,133) = 4.38, p = 0.006) followed by a Bonferonni post hoc for multiple comparisons. ⁺p < 0.05 comparing rats trained to cocaine self-administration versus yoked-saline. B, C, Cocaine did not alter the levels of β1 injection in the NAcore of any treatment group compared with yoked-saline. D, At 24 h after the last cocaine self-administration (SA) session, the levels of β3 in the PSD of the NAcore was lower compared with yoked-saline controls (t₍₁₁₎ = 2.32, p < 0.041), while the levels of β3 were increased in the cocaine group after 3 weeks of extinction training (t₍₁₈₎ = 5.45, p < 0.001). *p < 0.05. E, An acute cocaine injection dynamically regulated β3 integrin in the NAcore. A two-way ANOVA revealed a significant interaction (F_(2,41) = 21.19, p < 0.001, n = 6–12) for each group. Lanes shown in C and E are representative of adjacent lanes out of a total 26 lanes run for each gel. *p < 0.05 comparing all data to yoked-saline time = 0 using a Bonferroni post hoc. ⁺p < 0.05, comparing 30 and 120 min to 0 min within the cocaine treatment group.