Hexamethonium Antagonism Test
Objective: Assessment of hexamethonium's effects on nicotine-induced locomotor stimulation in tolerant rats, comparing its antagonistic properties to mecamylamine
This is a Hexamethonium Antagonism Test protocol using rat as the model organism. The procedure involves 4 procedural steps, 1 equipment items, 4 materials. Extracted from a 1983 paper published in British Journal of Pharmacology.
Model and subjects
rat • not specified • unknown • not specified • not specified
Study window
~3 week study window | ~4 hours hands-on
Core workflow
Establish tolerance in experimental group • Prepare test session • Administer hexamethonium antagonism test
Primary readouts
- Locomotor activity measured by photocell cage detection
- Initial depressant action of nicotine (first 20 minutes)
- Later stimulant action of nicotine (throughout session)
- Ataxia presence and severity
Key equipment and reagents
Use this page as an execution guide, then fall back to the source paper whenever you need exact exclusions, dosing details, or assay-specific caveats.
Confirm first
- Verify the animal model, intervention setup, and collection timepoints against the source paper.
- Check that every direct vendor link matches the exact specification your lab plans to run.
Use the page like this
- Work through the protocol steps in order and use the inline vendor chips only when you need to source or verify an item.
- Jump to Experimental Context for readouts, data shape, and analysis flow before planning downstream analysis.
Protocol Steps
Start here. The step list is optimized for running the experiment, with direct vendor links available inline when you need to source a cited item.
Establish tolerance in experimental group
Rats given nicotine (0.4 mg/kg s.c.) every day with control rats given saline instead. Each week, every subject tested once with nicotine (0.4 mg/kg) and once with saline.
Note: Tolerance to depressant action persisted for at least 3 weeks
View evidence from paper
“Tolerance was studied by comparing rats given nicotine (0.4 mg/kg s.c.) every day with control rats given saline instead. Each week, every subject was tested once with nicotine (0.4 mg/kg) and once with saline.”
Prepare test session
Rats placed in photocell cages immediately after subcutaneous injection
Note: Testing begins immediately after injection
View evidence from paper
“Rats were tested for locomotor activity in photocell cages, for 80 min starting immediately after subcutaneous injection”
Administer hexamethonium antagonism test
In tolerant rats, hexamethonium (0.2, 1.0, 5.0 mg/kg s.c.) administered to test its ability to prevent nicotine-induced locomotor stimulation
Note: Hexamethonium had little or no effect on preventing nicotine-induced stimulation in tolerant rats, unlike mecamylamine
View evidence from paper
“In tolerant rats, the locomotor stimulant action of nicotine (0.4 mg/kg) was prevented by mecamylamine (0.1, 0.32, 1.0 mg/kg s.c.) in a dose-related way; the quaternary ganglion blocker, hexamethonium (0.2, 1.0, 5.0 mg/kg s.c.) had little or no such effect.”
Control for drug effects alone
Neither mecamylamine nor hexamethonium administered alone to verify they do not alter activity independently
Note: Control condition to establish baseline effects
View evidence from paper
“Neither mecamylamine nor hexamethonium altered activity when given alone.”