Figure 6. Loss of SERT in the adrenal gland of SERT^ΔTH mice resulted in dramatically reduced 5-HT content but no change in catecholamines.

The monoamine content of whole adrenal glands from SERT^ΔTH (ΔTH; n = 8 mice, 4 male and 4 female) or SERT^fl/fl littermates (fl/fl; n = 8, 4 male and 4 female) was determined using HPLC and normalized to total protein content of the samples (ng / mg protein). A–D) Box plots indicate the median with interquartile range and whiskers denote standard deviation. The number of biological replicates (n values) is indicated below the boxes. Statistical comparison was performed using an unpaired Student’s t-test. There was no significant difference in the amount of catecholamines detected in SERT^ΔTH mice compared to SERT^fl/fl littermate controls (ns denotes not statistically significant: epinephrine, P = 0.91; norepinephrine P = 0.62; dopamine P = 0.96). In contrast, there was significantly less 5-HT in the adrenal glands of SERT^ΔTH mice compared to SERT^fl/fl littermates (*** denotes P = 0.0001). E) Same data as panels A–D with the monoamine content of SERT^ΔTH expressed as a percentage of the mean value for SERT^fl/fl mice (ns denotes not significantly different from SERT^fl/fl, P = 0.6 – 0.9, *** P = 0.0001, unpaired Student’s t-test).