Behavioral variation across multiple phases of intravenous cocaine self-administration among genetically diverse mouse populations

Genetic and other predisposing factors can influence the progression from initiation of drug intake to compulsive substance use through distinct biobehavioral processes. Operant cocaine self-administration studies in laboratory mice offer a powerful method to dissect the biology of this progression from initiation, dose-response, extinction, and cued reinstatement in a controlled, tractable system. However, many such studies encompass limited genetic diversity and rarely examine self-administration behaviors beyond the acquisition stage. Here, we study three high-diversity mouse populations – 50 strains from the Collaborative Cross (CC) reference panel, a large sample of Diversity Outbred (J: DO) population and their eight founder strains – to characterize the varied phenotypic manifestation of behaviors across multiple phases of cocaine intravenous self-administration (IVSA) in both sexes. We observed distinct strain differences among the founders and CC strains in all phases of self-administration, with heritability estimates ranging from 0 to 0.585 and many CC and J: DO phenotypic values exceeding the range of founders including the C57BL/6J strain. Sex differences were common across behaviors, some manifesting as main effects, others as strain interactions. Finally, by adopting a multi-stage design, we identified extreme strains for various cocaine intake and response traits. Together, these findings demonstrate the utility of extended self-administration protocols in high-diversity mouse populations and establish feasibility for their use in the discovery and characterization of biological mechanisms of substance use traits and for preclinical studies in relevant, complex mouse models.