Abstract

The medial septum which is extensively connected to the hippocampus is involved in cholinergic theta oscilla-tion control as well as the anxiety related disorders. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the possible involvement of the medial septum cholinoceptors in the nicotine-induced anxiogenic-like behaviors in rats, using the elevated plus-maze (EPM) test. Intraperitoneal administration of nicotine at 0.6 and 0.8 mg/kg, decreased the open-arms time percentage (%OAT) and open-arms entries percentage (%OAE); indicating an anxiogenic-like response. Intra-medial septum microinjection of mecamylamine, a nicotinic acetylcholine recep-tor (nAChR) antagonist at the doses of 1 –4 μg/rat, increased %OAT (4 μg/rat), suggesting an anxiolytic-like effect. This however, did not alter the anxiogenic-like response induced by the effective dose of nicotine (0.6 mg/kg). Moreover, co-administration of the subthreshold dose of mecamylamine (2μg/rat) plus nicotine at the dose of 0.5 or 0.6 mg/kg, increased or decreased the anxiolytic-like behaviors, respectively. On the other hand, sole intra-medial septum infusion of atropine, a muscarinic acetylcholine receptor (mAChR) antagonist, induced an anxiolytic (0.05 μg/rat) and anxiogenic (0.25μg/rat)-like effects, respectively. The dose of 0.05 μg/rat however, blocked the nicotine response. Furthermore, intra-medial septum microinjection of the highest dose of mecamylamine (4 μg/rat) plus nicotine (0.6 mg/kg) decreased the locomotor activity, while other treat-ments had no effect on this parameter. Our results suggested that, nicotine-induced anxiogenic-like behaviors may be mediated via the activation of cholinoceptors and possibly other receptor mechanism(s) in the medial septum.