Uptake of [3H]5-hydroxytryptamine and [3H]noradrenaline by slices of rat brain incubated in plasma from patients treated with chlorimipramine, imipramine or amitriptyline

Abstract

Great interest has been focused in recent years on the purported role of monoamines in the depressive syndrome (for review see McClure, 1971). Monoamine systems in the brains of various species have been mapped out (Fuxe, 1965; Ungerstedt, 1971) and noradrenaline nerve terminals have been demonstrated in human cerebral cortex (Nyström, Olsson & Ungerstedt, 1972). Tricyclic antidepressants have been shown to be effective in about 60% of depressions treated (Bennet, 1967). These drugs affect the monoamine neuron by inhibiting the uptake of the released transmitters noradrenaline and/or 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) through the membrane pump of the nerve terminals. Various tricyclic antidepressants have different profiles of potency in inhibiting the uptake into noradrenaline and 5-HT nerve terminals, each drug having its own pattern (Carlsson, Corrodi & others, 1969; Shaskan & Snyder, 1970; Lidbrink, Jonsson & Fuxe, 1971; Ross, Renyi & Ögren, 1972). We have previously studied the active uptake of [3H]noradrenaIine (3H-NA) and [3H]5-hydroxytryptamine (3H-5-HT) into their respective nerve terminals by using slices of rat cerebral cortex incubated in human plasma which was drawn from patients before and during treatment with antidepressant drugs (Hamberger & Tuck, 1973).