Fig. 4.

Time course of the effect of sertraline treatment and cessation of treatment on the density and mRNA levels of the SERT in the dorsal raphe nucleus. SERT density (solid line) was measured by quantitative autoradiography of [³H]-CN-IMI (1 nm) binding, and mRNA levels for the SERT (dashed line) were measured byin situ hybridization in the same group of animals treated with sertraline, as described in Materials and Methods. Each point is expressed as a percentage of respective control values ± SEM of an N of 4–11 rats. SEM for percentage of control binding is shown by the dashed horizontal lines, and the one for percentage of control mRNA is shown by the solid horizontal lines. Control values for [³H]-CN-IMI in the DRN were 3097 ± 70 fmol/mg of protein, and the mean integrated density for mRNA levels in control rats was 2.27 ± 0.3 nCi/mg. The x-axis of the graph represents the number of days of treatment plus the washout time. Up to 23 d, this represents a variable number of treatment days plus a fixed 2 d washout time. After day 23, the numbers represent a fixed 21 d treatment plus a variable number of washout days. *p < 0.05 comparison of each time point of treatment with the appropriate time point of the control group; ANOVA followed by Newman–Keuls post hoccomparisons.