M.L. Lo´pez-Rodr´ıguez et al. / European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 38 (2003) 403ꢁ
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3.3. In vivo assays for UCM707
Acknowledgements
3.3.1. Animals and treatments and sampling
Male Wistar rats were housed 2 weeks before the
onset of the experiments in a room with controlled
This work has been supported by MCYT (BQU 2001-
1459) and CICYT (PM99-0056). The authors would like
to thank MECD and CAM for predoctoral grants to
S.O.G. and E.L., respectively. C.J.F. and G.T. would
like to thank the Swedish Science Research Council
(Grant no. 12158. Medicine) and Konung Gustav V’s
and Drottning Victorias Foundation for financial sup-
port. The authors would also like to thank B.J. for her
excellent technical assistance with the FAAH assays.
photoperiod (08:00ꢁ
1 8C).
They had free access to standard food and water.
Animals were used at about to months of age (250ꢁ350
/
20:00 light) and temperature (239
/
/
g weight) in all experiments, which were always con-
ducted according to European and local rules on the
care of and research with experimental animals. In a
first experiment, rats were injected i.p. with three
different doses (0.1, 1.0 and 10 mg kgꢂ1) of UCM707
or with vehicle (Tween 80-saline, 1:16). Ten minutes
later, animals were assessed in the open-field test or in
the hot-plate test. In a second experiment, rats were
divided into four groups and subjected to the following
i.p. injections: (i) vehicle (Tween 80-saline, 1:16), (ii) a
dose of UCM707, selected from the doses that did not
produce any effects in the above experiment (0.5
mg kgꢂ1 for the open-field test and 1 mg kgꢂ1 for the
hot-plate test), (iii) a subeffective dose of anandamide
(0.3 mg kgꢂ1 for the open-field test and 2 mg kgꢂ1 for
the hot-plate test), and (iv) the combination of both,
UCM707 and anandamide, administered at the same
time. Ten minutes later, animals were also assessed in
the open-field test or in the hot-plate test.
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