Figure 6.

G9a overexpression during cocaine SA leads to lasting increases in anxiety-like behaviors and decreases in phosphorylated CREB in the NAcSh. a, Anxiety-like behaviors scored in animals self-administering cocaine with HSV expression during FR dose–response (DR) and PR (Experiment 1), HSV-GFP: n = 7, HSV-G9a: n = 11, and HSV expression during initial 15 d of cocaine SA (Experiment 2), HSV-GFP: n = 6, HSV-G9a: n = 7. b, Time spent in the open arms and latency to enter the open arms in the EPM test in animals completing Experiment 2. c, Time spent in the center and latency to the center in the open field test (HSV-GFP: n = 5, HSV-G9a: n = 6). d–f, Western blot results from NAcSh tissue after final behavioral tests for G9a (d), β-tubulin (e), H3K9me2, Histone H3 total and phosphorylated and total CREB levels (f) (HSV-GFP: n = 5, HSV-G9a: n = 5). Data are expressed as mean ± SEM. #p < 0.10, *p < 0.05, and **p < 0.01 compared with HSV-GFP controls.