Conditioned place preference/aversion to fenfluramine in fawn hooded and sprague-Dawley rats

The Fawn Hooded (FH) rat strain possesses a genetic platelet storage pool deficiency which leads to an impaired capacity for platelets to store and release serotonin. While the relationship between this deficit and possible alterations in brain serotonergic levels or function remains unclear, numerous behavioral studies have indicated that FH rats exhibit differential responses to serotonergic agonists and antagonist relative to other strains. The current study used the conditioned place preference paradigm to examine the ability of fenfluramine to produce a conditioned place preference (CPP) or aversion (CPA) in FH and Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats. Results indicated that fenfluramine failed to produce CPP or CPA in SD rats, but did produce a CPA in FH rats. Results are discussed in terms of the use of conditioned place preference to assess putative differences in serotonergic functioning in FH rats.