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. 1975 Jul;54(3):285–293. doi: 10.1111/j.1476-5381.1975.tb07567.x

Effects of desipramine on neuronal responses to dopamine, noradrenaline, 5-hydroxytryptamine and acetylcholine in the caudate nucleus of the rat.

P Bevan, C M Bradshaw, E Szabadi
PMCID: PMC1666469  PMID: 1164588

Abstract

1 The sensitivity of single neurones to microelectrophoretically applied dopamine, noradrenaline (NA), 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) and acetylcholing (ACh) was investigated in the caudate nucleus of the rat, anaesthetized with halothane. Both excitatory and depressant responses could be observed to each of the agonists. There was a high correlation between the direction of responses to dopamine and noradrenaline, whereas there was no significant correlation between the direction of responses to dopamine and ACh. 2 The effect of desipramine was studied on both excitatory and depressant responses to dopamine, NA and 5-HT, and on excitatory responses to ACh. Both potentiation and antagonism of neuronal responses to monoamines and ACh could be observed after a brief application of desipramine. 3 Excitatory responses to glutamate were not affected by desipramine. 4 The observation that responses to dopamine and NA can be potentiated by desipramine in the caudate nucleus suggests that uptake blockade is not a prerequisite for potentiation. 5 It is suggested that the potentiation of neuronal responses to dopamine by desipramine may be responsible for the therapeutic efficacy of desipramine in Parkinson's disease.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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