Figure 5.

The reinstatement of cocaine seeking was associated with increased expression of phosphorylated PKCγ in the nucleus accumbens core. Representative Western blots for PKC isoforms and GAPDH (loading control) in the accumbens core from cocaine self-administration/cocaine challenge injection and yoked saline/cocaine challenge injection treatments are shown (yoked saline/saline challenge injection and cocaine self-administration/saline challenge injection blots not shown). Florescence values from all Western blots were normalized to GAPDH and then plotted as the ratio of phosphorylated to native PKC isoform expression. The results of these analyses are plotted in (a), (b) and (c). There were no significant differences among treatments in terms of pPKCα/PKCα expression (a) or pPKCβII/PKCβII expression (b) in the accumbens core. There was a significant increase in pPKCγ/PKCγ expression (c) in the accumbens core of the cocaine/cocaine group compared with the saline/saline, saline/cocaine and cocaine/saline treatment groups (Bonferroni, *P < 0.05). There were four to seven rats per treatment