Serotonin, Antiserotonins and Hypertension

Abstract

SEROTONIN or 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) (Fig. 1) has been the subject of a great deal of recent investigation and speculation. Two excellent reviews, one by Page¹ and the other by Erspamer,² both of whom have contributed important basic information, give the background of the recent interest. Serotonin is found in many tissues of the body but is particularly concentrated in the brain, the platelets of the blood and the mucosa of the gastrointestinal tract. It is an intense local vasoconstrictor, and its presence in platelets has been assumed to give them a styptic as well as a thrombotic function. Certainly within . . .