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

Search MEDLINE/PubMed


  • Title: Chronic cocaine administration depletes tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity in the meso-limbic dopamine system in rat brain: quantitative light microscopic studies.
    Author: Trulson ME, Joe JC, Babb S, Raese JD.
    Journal: Brain Res Bull; 1987 Jul; 19(1):39-45. PubMed ID: 2888517.
    Abstract:
    Chronic administration of cocaine (10 mg/kg, IP, every 12 hours for 10 consecutive days) produced a large decrease in tyrosine hydroxylase staining axons and terminal boutons in the frontal cortex and nucleus accumbens in rats. This treatment also produced a depletion of tyrosine hydroxylase immunoreactivity in the ventral tegmental area of the midbrain when examined 60 days following the final cocaine injection. These effects were quantitated using a Leitz Data Acquisition and Display System. This analysis revealed a 59% and 65% decrease in tyrosine hydroxylase positive staining terminal processes in the frontal cortex and nucleus accumbens, respectively. Furthermore, quantitative light microscopic analysis showed a 52% decrease in tyrosine hydroxylase positive material in the ventral tegmental area. These data demonstrate that chronic administration of cocaine produces a long-term, if not permanent, loss of tyrosine hydroxylase enzyme in both the cell bodies of the midbrain ventral tegmental area as well as in the nerve terminals in post-synaptic target regions of the forebrain.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]