Differential effects of short-term or prolonged cocaine exposure on peripheral blood cells in mice

The effects of cocaine on the number of murine peripheral blood cells and on phenotypic expression of lymphocyte subsets were examined using different regimens of drug exposure. Cocaine administered to mice for 7 consecutive days at 1 and 10 mg/kg/day reduced the absolute number of circulating white blood cells and the relative number of cells stained as lymphocytes, polymorphonuclear cells and monocytes. Cocaine did not modify the relative proportion between lymphocytes, polymorphonuclear cells and monocytes. Parallely, there were no changes in the percentage of circulating CD4+ and CD8+ lymphocytes, while the number of natural killer cells increased. In sharp contrast, we didn't observe any significant change in peripheral blood cells after 30 days of consecutive drug administrations.