Conditioning versus priming of dopaminergic grafts by amphetamine.

Previous treatment with amphetamine can influence the rotational response induced by amphetamine in rats with dopaminergic grafts. In order to distinguish whether this is due to graft "priming" or conditioning effects of the drug, groups of adult rats with unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) lesions of the substantia nigra, or with the lesion plus grafts of embryonic mesencephalic tissue in the striatum, were exposed to either: (1) amphetamine in the test environment and saline in the home cage; (2) saline in the test environment and amphetamine in the home cage; or (3) saline in the test environment and saline in the home cage. During this conditioning stage of the experiment, rats with the lesion alone rotated ipsilaterally and rats with the lesion plus grafts contralaterally when tested after administration of amphetamine. The rotation sensitized, i.e. the rats with lesions made more ipsilateral and the rats with grafts more contralateral turns, with repeated injections of the drug. On a subsequent no-drug test, only the rats with grafts which had previously experienced amphetamine in the test environment (1) showed conditioned contralateral rotation. Rats with grafts which had received the same number of amphetamine injections, but experienced the effects of the drug in the home cage (2), rotated ipsilaterally on the no-drug test to the same extent as rats with grafts which had received only saline (3). Thus, amphetamine treatment per se did not "prime" grafts. Rather, the response of the rats with grafts was the result of formation of a conditioned association between the amphetamine and the environment with which it had been paired.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)