Nicotine-Cadmium Interaction Alters Exploratory Motor Function and Increased Anxiety in Adult Male Mice

Figure 1

Comparative body weight analysis for Cd, Nc, Cd-Nc, and control group after the acute and chronic treatment phases. As a result of acute nicotine treatment, an increase in body weight was observed in the acute (D1–D7) and chronic treatment phases (D7–D21). However, comparing the nicotine treated animals and the control, only a slight change in body weight was seen (). Administration of cadmium caused an increase in body weight after the acute phase; subsequently, a decline in body weight was seen after chronic treatment with cadmium () versus the control. Similarly, combined treatment with nicotine and cadmium induced an increase in body weight after the acute treatment phase, followed by a decline after chronic treatment. In addition, the decrease in body weight observed in the nicotine-cadmium treatment group was lower than the average body weight for nicotine treatment but higher than the weight recorded in cadmium treatment group. The average weight/ group was expressed as mean ± standard error of mean (SEM) (, Cd²⁺ versus Nic; , Cd²⁺ versus Cd²⁺ + Nic; , Nic versus Cd²⁺ + Nic; , Cd²⁺ versus control; , Nic versus control; and , Cd²⁺ + Nic versus control).