Nicotinic receptor-mediated regulation of the dopamine transporter in rat prefrontocortical slices following chronic in vivo administration of nicotine

Nicotine and amphetamine acutely cross-potentiate their behavioral and neurochemical responses in female Holtzman rats

“…Similarly, repeated nicotine pretreatment facilitated cocaine self-administration in rats (Horger et al 1992;Bechtholt and Mark 2002;McQuown et al 2007). Consistent with behavioral studies, amphetamine-stimulated dopamine overflow in the accumbens (Birrell and Balfour 1998) and prefrontal cortex (Drew and Werling 2003) was enhanced in rats repeatedly exposed to nicotine. These data suggest that repeated nicotine produces persistent alterations in psychomotor and reward systems that are shared with other drugs of abuse such as amphetamine and cocaine.…”

Increased dopamine transporter density in Parkinson's disease patients with social anxiety disorder

“…Social anxiety increases the risk for tobacco dependence [47] and thus it is not surprising that PD patients with SAD are more frequently former smokers. Tobacco is known to regulate the expression of DAT prefrontal cortex of the rat [48] and acute administration of nicotine is associated with increased dopamine release in humans [49]. The fact that none of our patients were current smokers at the time the SPECT scan was obtained does not exclude smoking as a possible confounder.…”

Lower striatal dopamine transporter binding in neuroleptic-naive schizophrenic patients is not related to antipsychotic treatment but it suggests an illness trait

“…Chronic exposure to nicotine was suggested to increase DAT expression (Li et al 2004;Drew and Werling 2003) and females seem to express higher DAT availability than males because of estrogen impregnation (Seeman 1997). The prevalence of smokers was higher among patients than among controls.…”