ArticlesThe Acute Effects of Amphetamine Derivatives on Extracellular Serotonin and Dopamine Levels in Rat Nucleus Accumbens
Section snippets
Subjects
Adult male Wistar rats aged 11–12 weeks were used in the study. The rats were delivered from Helsinki University Laboratory Animal Centre, Finland, at least 1 week before the experiments. The total number of individuals was 125, and they were housed two per cage in a temperature-controlled room with a light cycle of 12 h, and free access to food and water. The experimental setup was approved by the Committee for Animal Experiments of the National Public Health Institute.
Drugs
Amphetamine sulphate
Results
The means of basal concentrations in dialysate were as follows (±SE; n = 25): dopamine 157 ± 21 fmol/60 μl, 5-HT 73 ± 11 fmol/60 μl, DOPAC 24.8 ± 2.8 pmol/60 μl, HVA 10.0 ± 1.2 pmol/60 μl, and 5-HIAA 6.5 ± 0.4 pmol/60 μl. The baseline levels remained unaltered in saline-treated rats.
Discussion
As measured by this in vivo microdialysis study, the amphetamine derivatives elevated the extracellular 5-HT levels in nucleus accumbens in the following order of magnitude: MDMA > MDA > amphetamine > DOM. For elevation of the dopamine levels the corresponding order is: amphetamine > MDMA = MDA > DOM. Thus, amphetamine predominantly elevated the dopamine levels, while MDA and MDMA elevated both the 5-HT and dopamine levels, and DOM failed to affect either of the compounds markedly. These
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Ms. Riitta Tirkkonen-Vesikko for her capable technical assistance.
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