Individuals with greater nicotine-reactivity may be more likely to initiate and maintain cigarette-smoking behavior than individuals with less nicotine-reactivity. In rats, behavioral sensitization reflects a progressive increase in the psychomotor response to drugs of abuse thought to result from neuroplasticity in brain regions that mediate their motivational effects. Studying nicotine behavi...

Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths worldwide, and nicotine, the primary psychoactive constituent in tobacco, drives sustained use. The behavioral actions of nicotine are complex and extend well beyond the actions of the drug as a primary reinforcer. Stimuli that are consistently paired with nicotine can, through associative learning, take on reinforcing properties as c...

Tobacco smoking is an important risk factor for the development of several cancers, osteoporosis, and inflammatory diseases such as periodontitis. Nicotine is one of the major components of tobacco. In previous study, we showed that nicotine inhibits mineralized nodule formation by osteoblasts, and the culture medium from osteoblasts containing nicotine and lipopolysaccharide increases osteocla...

INTRODUCTION Snus is a smokeless tobacco product traditionally used in Scandinavia and available in pouched or loose forms. The objective of this study was to determine nicotine absorption for current pouched and loose snus products in comparison with a cigarette and an over-the-counter nicotine gum. METHODS We conducted an open-label, randomized, 6-way, crossover study involving 20 healthy s...

An important factor contributing to the high relapse rates among smokers is nicotine withdrawal symptoms. Multiple studies suggest that decreased dopamine release in nucleus accumbens plays a key role in withdrawal. However, recent reports showed that long-term nicotine exposure itself also decreases accumbal dopamine release, suggesting that additional mechanisms are involved in withdrawal. He...

Tobacco--particularly smoked products--has been associated with great harm and growing public disapproval and can be expected to suffer in the marketplace. This situation has created opportunities for other less harmful nicotine-containing products such as smokeless tobacco and nicotine replacement products, which are gaining public support. Little is known about the level of nicotine intake in...

OBJECTIVE To review the literature on nicotine dependence, nicotine pharmacology, health consequences associated with the use of nicotine, and nicotine replacement therapies used to aid smokers who are nicotine dependent. DATA SOURCES A review of articles, book bibliographies, and published studies identified by a search of the MEDLINE database from 1982 to 1996 on nicotine dependence, nicoti...

d-Nicotine (1000 micrograms) applied into the cerebral ventricle of urethane anesthetized rats increased gastric acid secretion. When 50 micrograms of d-nicotine was concomitantly administered with 5 micrograms of 1-nicotine, the 1-nicotine-induced increases in gastric secretion was blocked. The appearance of convulsion induced by I-nicotine in mice was also inhibited by pretreatment with d-nic...

BACKGROUND The relevance of nicotine yields from machine-smoked cigarettes for quantifying smokers' nicotine intakes and exposure to cigarette toxins has been called into question. However, most studies of the relationship between nicotine yield and nicotine intake have been on relatively small and unrepresentative samples and have included few smokers of "ultra-low" brands (i.e., those yieldin...

Vaccination against nicotine reduces the behavioral effects of nicotine in rats, and it is under clinical evaluation as a treatment for tobacco addiction. Efficacy is limited by the need for high serum nicotine-specific antibody (NicAb) levels, and currently available nicotine vaccines do not uniformly generate the required NicAb levels. Passive immunization with a nicotine-specific monoclonal ...