These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Characterization of serotonergic mechanisms involved in the behavioural inhibition induced by 5-hydroxytryptophan in a modified light-dark test in mice.
    Author: Artaiz I, Zazpe A, Del Río J.
    Journal: Behav Pharmacol; 1998 Mar; 9(2):103-12. PubMed ID: 10065930.
    Abstract:
    In a modified light-dark exploration test in mice, 5-hydroxytryptophan, at doses (25-50 mg/kg) that approximately doubled the 5-HT content in the cerebral cortex, reduced the time spent by mice in the white compartment, suggesting an anxiogenic effect. Depletion of brain 5-HT content with p-chlorophenylalanine (300 mg/kg/day for three consecutive days) resulted in an anxiolytic-like effect. Conversely, the 5-HT reuptake blocker fluoxetine reduced the time spent by mice in the white compartment. No significant interaction of either p-chlorophenylalanine or fluoxetine with 5-hydroxytryptophan was found. Several 5-HT agents, some of them with an intrinsic anxiolytic-like effect in this test, were studied in combination with 5-hydroxytryptophan. All of the drugs with a selective affinity at 5-HT1A receptors interacted significantly with 5-hydroxytryptophan. The suppressant effect of 5-hydroxytryptophan was antagonized or reversed by buspirone, a partial agonist at postsynaptic 5-HT1A receptors, and also by the "silent" 5-HT1A receptor antagonist WAY 100635, but not by the full agonist 8-OH-DPAT. The 5-HT2 receptor antagonist ritanserin partly counteracted the 5-hydroxytryptophan effect at the lower dose used. The 5-HT3 receptor antagonist ondansetron was able to prevent, at a low dose, the anxiogenic effect of 5-hydroxytryptophan; however, the 5-HT3 antagonists VA21B7 and granisetron as well as the 5-HT3/5-HT4 antagonist tropisetron and the selective 5-HT4 receptor antagonist RS 23597-190 were ineffective. The results appear to be consistent with the hypothesis that relates increased activity of the 5-HT systems to increased anxiety. Even though different 5-HT receptor subtypes may be involved in the anxiogenic effect of a high dose of 5-hydroxytryptophan, postsynaptic 5-HT1A receptors appear to play a prominent role. Administration of 5-hydroxytryptophan may consequently represent a valid approach to analyse further the role of 5-HT agents, in particular those acting at 5-HT1A receptors, in animal models of anxiety.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]