Chronic exposure of rodents to nicotine via subcutaneously or intracerebroventricularly implanted miniosmotic pumps affects T cell function. However, this method of continuous nicotine administration does not replicate the self-motivated administration of nicotine in human smokers. To determine whether nicotine impairs the immune system under conditions pertinent to human smokers, we investigated the T cell responsiveness of male Lewis rats self-administering (SA) nicotine (0.03 mg/kg of body weight per injection) 40 to 50 times/day for 5 weeks, using a model of virtually unlimited access to nicotine. Compared with sham control animals, the concanavalin A-induced proliferation of spleen cells from SA rats was significantly decreased. Moreover, the ability of spleen cells to mobilize intracellular Ca 2ϩ after ligation of the T cell antigen receptor (TCR) with an anti-␣ TCR antibody was significantly less in SA than in control rats. In addition, inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP 3 )-sensitive intracellular Ca 2ϩ stores were markedly depleted in spleen cells from SA animals. These results suggest that chronic nicotine self-administration suppresses T cell responsiveness, and this suppression may result from an impaired TCR-mediated signaling that stems from the depletion of IP 3 -sensitive intracellular Ca 2ϩ stores.Cigarette smoking is a major health risk factor and significantly increases the incidence of several diseases (reviewed in Sopori et al., 1994). It is hypothesized that this increased disease susceptibility reflects cigarette smoke-induced changes in the immune system (Holt and Keast, 1977). Chronic exposure to cigarette smoke suppresses a wide range of immunological parameters in human and animal models , and this immunosuppression is associated with the particulate phase of cigarette smoke (Sopori et al., 1993). Nicotine is the major neuroactive chemical in cigarette smoke, and previous data from this and other laboratories suggest that nicotine suppresses immune and inflammatory responses (reviewed in Sopori, 1998). Chronic s.c. or i.c.v. exposure of rats to nicotine affects T cell mitogenesis and the ability of T cells to migrate from the G 0 /G 1 into the S phase of the cell cycle (Geng et al., 1996;. Ligation of the T cell antigen receptor (TCR) by anti-TCR antibodies is an in vitro model for an antigeninduced T cell activation that stimulates protein tyrosine kinases, leading to activation of phospholipase C-␥1, production of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP 3 ) (Nishibe et al., 1990;Robey and Allison, 1995), and the mobilization of intracellular Ca 2ϩ due to IP 3 . Effects of nicotine on T cell proliferation are associated with impaired TCR-mediated signaling in T cells, including inhibition of the ability to raise intracellular concentration of ionized Ca 2ϩ ([Ca 2ϩ ] i ) (Geng et al., 1995(Geng et al., , 1996. Chronic round-the-clock exposure of rats to nicotine via miniosmotic pumps inhibits the [Ca 2ϩ ] i response in T cells (Geng et al., 1996); however, it is difficult to assume...