Effect of electro-acupuncture on drug-seeking behavior of the heroin self-administrating rat

Objective: This present study is to establish a rat model of intravenous heroin self-administration and observe the effect of electro-acupuncture on the heroin-seeking behavior of the heroin self-administrating rat. Methods: Six Male Wistar rats were surgically implanted with an intra-jugular intravenous catheters under sodium pentobarbital anesthesia, following a minimum recovery of 7 days, the rats were trained by nose-poke response with one daily 4-hour session for 14 consecutive days to self administer heroin (50μg/kg/per injection), the session ended after 25 infusions were earned or 4 hours had passed, whichever came first, the reinforcement schedule was fixed ratio 1 (FR1) that the rat received a heroin injection for each nose poke response. And then the rats were given electro-acupuncture treatment daily 30min prior to each session and then were trained with one daily 4-h session for 7 consecutive days. Results: Stable intravenous heroin self-administration behavior of rats was established after 7–8 days' drug training, electro-acupuncture given to the stable heroin self-administrating rat 30 min prior to each session could reduce the drug self-administration behavior, namely the total heroin intake in each session was reduced, especially the 1st hour heroin intake, the initiation of first nose-poke response in each session was relayed, and the haste heroin-seeking behavior also became slower. Conclusions: The above results suggested that the electro-acupuncture had better detoxification effect.