Dopamine nerve terminal degeneration produced by high doses of methylamphetamine in the rat brain

doi:10.1016/0006-8993(82)90198-6

Brain Research

Volume 235, Issue 1, 4 March 1982, Pages 93-103

https://doi.org/10.1016/0006-8993(82)90198-6 Get rights and content

Abstract

Numerous recent studies indicate that when amphetamines are administered continuously or in high doses, they exert long-lasting toxic effects on dopamine (DA) neurons in the central nervous system (CNS). Specifically, it has been shown that amphetamines can decrease the content of brain DA, reduce the number of synaptosomal DA uptake sites and selectively depress the in vitro activity of neostriatal tyrosine hydroxylase (TH). To date, however, anatomical evidence of DA neuronal destruction following amphetamines has not been reported. In this study, chemical methods were used in conjunction with the Fink-Heimer method which allows for the selective silver impregnation of degenerating nerve fibers, in order to determine whether methylamphetamine, a potent psychomotor stimulant often abused by man, causes actual DA neural degeneration. It has been found that methylamphetamine induces terminal degeneration along with correlative DA neurochemical deficits in the neostriatum and nucleus accumbens; furthermore, that in cresyl violet-stained sections of the substantia nigra (SN), pars compacta, and ventral tegmental area (VTA), there is no evidence of cell body loss in rats in which 50–60% of neostriatal DA terminals have been destroyed.

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Dopamine nerve terminal degeneration produced by high doses of methylamphetamine in the rat brain

Abstract

Mounting frozen sections with gelatin

Stain Technol.

A study of the factors affecting the aluminum oxide trihydroxyindole procedure for the analysis of catecholamines

J. Pharmacol. exp. Ther.

Fine structural changes in rat brain after intracisternal injection of 6-hydroxydopamine

Simultaneous measurement of tyrosine and tryptophan hydroxylase activities in brain in vivo using an inhibitor of aromatic amino acid decar☐ylase

Naunyn Schmiedeberg's Arch. Pharmak.

Brain mechanisms of amphetamine-induced anorexia, locomotion and stereotypy, a review

Neurosci. Behav. Rev.

Connections of the median and dorsal raphe nuclei in the rat: an autoradiographic and degeneration study

J. comp. Neurol.

Long-term changes in dopaminergic innervation of caudate nucleus after continuous amphetamine administration

Science

Liquid chromatography detector bases on single and twin electrode thin-layer electrochemistry: application to the determination of catecholamines in blood plasma

Analyt. Chem.

Two methods for the selective silver-impregnation of degenerating axons and their synaptic endings in the central nervous system

Brain Research

Long-lasting depletion of striatal dopamine by a single injection of amphetamine on iprindole-treated rats

Science

Evidence for the existence of monoamine neurons. IV. Distribution of monoamine nerve terminals in the central nervous system

Acta physiol. scand.

The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics

p-Cloramphetamine: selective neurotoxic action in brain

Science

Neuronal degeneration in rat brain induced by 6-hydroxydopamine: a histological and biochemical study

Brain Research

Increased non-specific damage after lateral ventricle injection in rat brain

Long-term effects of multiple doses of methamphetamine on tryptophan hydroxylase and tyrosine hydroxylase activity in rat brain

J. Pharmacol. exp. Ther.