Parental nicotine exposure can impact phenotypes in unexposed offspring. Our laboratory recently published data showing that nicotine reward and hippocampal gene expression involved in stress pathways were perturbed in F1 offspring of male C57BL/6J mice chronically exposed to nicotine. For the current study, we aimed to further test nicotine and stress-sensitivity phenotypes that may predict vulnerability to nicotine addiction in new cohorts of F1 offspring derived from nicotine-exposed males. We tested locomotor and body temperature sensitivity to acute nicotine administration, serum concentration of nicotine and nicotine metabolites after acute nicotine dosing, and serum corticosterone levels in male and female F1 offspring of nicotine- or saline-exposed males. Paternal nicotine exposure reduced sensitivity to nicotine-induced hypothermia in males, altered nicotine metabolite concentrations in males and females, and reduced serum basal corticosterone levels in females. These findings may point to reduced susceptibility to nicotine addiction-related phenotypes as a result of parental nicotine exposure.

父母接触尼古丁会影响未接触尼古丁的后代的表型。我们实验室最近公布的数据显示，长期暴露于尼古丁的雄性 C57BL/6J 小鼠的 F1 后代中，参与应激途径的尼古丁奖励和海马基因表达受到干扰。对于目前的研究，我们旨在进一步测试尼古丁和压力敏感性表型，这些表型可能预测来自暴露于尼古丁的雄性的新 F1 后代群体对尼古丁成瘾的脆弱性。我们测试了对急性尼古丁给药的运动和体温敏感性，急性尼古丁给药后尼古丁和尼古丁代谢物的血清浓度，以及尼古丁或盐水暴露男性的雄性和雌性 F1 后代的血清皮质酮水平。父亲尼古丁暴露降低了男性对尼古丁诱导的低温的敏感性，改变了男性和女性的尼古丁代谢物浓度，并降低了女性的血清基础皮质酮水平。这些发现可能表明由于父母接触尼古丁而降低了对尼古丁成瘾相关表型的易感性。