Study Protocol: Effect of prenatal wheel-running exercise (before and during gestation) on cocaine psychomotor sensitization expressed in the offspring in periadolescent females and males C57BL/6J mice

The present study principally aims at determining to which extent prenatal exercise (before and during gestation) could affect the initiation (establishment) and the expression of psychomotor sensitization induced by a representative dose of cocaine in young female and male mice. More specifically, we will assess cocaine-induced acute psychomotor-activating effects, psychomotor sensitization developing over 9 daily sessions (daily peritoneal injections of cocaine or saline) and the long-term expression of the sensitized response (30 days after the last sensitizing injection) in C57BL/6J mice born from mothers housed with or without a running wheel before and during gestation. Based on literature and on our prior results, the mice born from exercised mothers are expected to show significantly reduced levels of cocaine responsiveness in comparison with the control mice (born from unexercised mothers)