The NAc plays a key role in heroin abuse vulnerability,(50, 51) thus we next examined protein levels of ELK1 in the NAc to determine whether alterations in the putamen were also evident in the mesolimbic component of the striatum. Laser capture microdissected samples were taken from the NAc, putamen and caudate nucleus from glass-mounted striatal sections from the same subjects studied above (Fig. 2A). Similar to the observations in putamen tissue punches, ELK1 expression was significantly elevated in all striatal regions of the heroin abusers, but was most pronounced in the NAc (p<0.05; F2,41=4.923, Fig. 2B).
