Effects of high-dose fenfluramine treatment on monoamine uptake sites in rat brain: Assessment using quantitative autoradiography
- NIDA Addiction Research Center, Baltimore, MD (USA)
Fenfluramine is an amphetamine derivative that in humans is used primarily as an anorectic agent in the treatment of obesity. In rats, subchronic high-dose d,l-fenfluramine treatment (24 mg/kg subcutaneously, twice daily for 4 days) causes long-lasting decreases in brain serotonin (5HT), its metabolite 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid, and high-affinity 5HT uptake sites. Moreover, this high-dose treatment regimen causes both selective long-lasting decreases in fine-caliber 5HT-immunoreactive axons and appearance of other 5HT-immunoreactive axons with morphology characteristic of degenerating axons. Determination of the potential neurotoxic effects of fenfluramine treatment using immunohistochemistry is limited from the perspectives that staining is difficult to quantify and that it relies on presence of the antigen (in this case 5HT), and the 5HT-depleting effects of fenfluramine are well known. In the present study, we used quantitative in vitro autoradiography to assess, in detail, the density and regional distribution of (3H)paroxetine-labeled 5HT and (3H)mazindol-labeled catecholamine uptake sites in response to the high-dose fenfluramine treatment described above. Because monoamine uptake sites are concentrated on monoamine-containing nerve terminals, decreases in uptake site density would provide a quantitative assessment of potential neurotoxicity resulting from this fenfluramine treatment regimen. Marked decreases in densities of (3H)paroxetine-labeled 5HT uptake sites occurred in brain regions in which fenfluramine treatment decreased the density of 5HT-like immunostaining when compared to saline-treated control rats. These included cerebral cortex, caudate putamen, hippocampus, thalamus, and medial hypothalamus.
- OSTI ID:
- 6370331
- Journal Information:
- Synapse (New York); (USA), Vol. 6:1; ISSN 0887-4476
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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