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Relapse is a major challenge in treating drug addiction, and drug seeking progressively increases after abstinence, a phenomenon termed “incubation of drug craving”. Previous studies demonstrated both sex differences and an effect of estrous cycle in female rats in incubation of cocaine craving. In contrast, while incubation of methamphetamine craving is similar across sexes, whether estrous cycle plays a role in this incubation has yet to be fully addressed. Moreover, whether neural mechanisms underlying incubation of methamphetamine craving differ across estrous cycles is largely unknown. To address these gaps, we first compared methamphetamine self-administration, and methamphetamine seeking on both abstinence days 1 and 28 between male rats and female rats across the estrous cycle. Next, we examined neuronal activation associated with incubated methamphetamine seeking in dorsomedial striatum (DMS) and lateral portion of the anterior intralaminar nucleus of thalamus (AIT-L), two brain areas previously implicated in incubation of methamphetamine craving. We found no effect of sex or estrous cycle on methamphetamine self-administration and methamphetamine seeking on abstinence days 1 and 28. We also found no effect of sex or estrous cycle on the number of Fos-expressing cells in DMS or AIT-L following methamphetamine seeking test. Taken together, our results showed that methamphetamine self-administration and incubation of methamphetamine craving was not dependent on sex or estrous cycles under our experimental condition, and the role of DMS and AIT-L in incubation of methamphetamine craving may be similar across sexes and across estrous cycles in female rats.

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy).This article has been retracted at the request of the Authors.It has come to the attention of the corresponding author that portions of the data presented in these manuscripts were not performed properly and represent manipulation. The immunohistochemistry in Figures 4 and 5 has been manipulated and the Western blots in Figure 6 were also manipulated. The authors take responsibility for them and apologize to the readership of Neurobiology of Disease.

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (http://www.elsevier.com/locate/withdrawalpolicy).This article has been retracted at the request of the Authors.It has come to the attention of the corresponding author that portions of the data presented in these manuscripts were not performed properly and represent manipulation. The immunohistochemistry in Figure 6 has been manipulated and the Western blots in Figure 7 were also manipulated. The authors take responsibility for them and apologize to the readership of Neurobiology of Disease.