Amphetamine Alters the Circadian Locomotor Activity Pattern of Adult WKY Female Rats

Cathleen G. Jones, Pamela B. Yang, Victor T. Wilcox, Nachum Dafny

Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, The University of Texas-Medical School at Houston, Houston, USA.

DOI: 10.4236/jbbs.2014.45022                

Abstract

There are no reports on the effect of amphetamine on female WKY circadian activity pattern. The objective of this study is to investigate whether repeated daily exposure to the psychostimulant amphetamine alters the locomotor circadian rhythm activity patterns of female adult Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats. Twenty-four rats were divided into two groups, control (N = 12) and experimental (N = 12), and kept in a 12:12 h light/dark cycle in an open field cage. After 5 to 7 days of acclimation, 11 days of consecutive non-stop recordings began. On experimental day 1, all groups were given an injection of saline. On experimental days 2 to 7, the experimental group was injected with 0.6 mg/kg amphetamine and the control group with saline followed by a washout phase from experimental day 8 to 10, and amphetamine re-challenge or saline on experimental day 11 similar to experimental day 2. Locomotor movements were determined using a computerized animal activity monitoring system, and cosine statistical analysis was used to fit a24-hour curve to the activity pattern. The horizontal activity (HA), total distance (TD), number of stereotypy (NOS), and stereotypical movements (SM) were analyzed for alterations in the circadian rhythm activity patterns. The data demonstrated that chronic amphetamine administration alters the mesor parameter of the circadian rhythm activity patterns, indicating that chronic amphetamine treatment exerts long term effects on these rats.

Keywords

Acute, Chronic, Amphetamine, Locomotor Activity, Sensitization, Withdrawal

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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