SHORT COMMUNICATION
CHRONIC TREATMENT WITH CITALOPRAM DOES NOT AFFECT THE EXPRESSION OF a
1-ADRENERGIC RECEPTOR ( a
1-AR) SUBTYPES
Grzegorz Kreiner, Adam Bielawski, Agnieszka Zelek-Molik, Marta Kowalska, Irena Nalepa
Laboratory of Intracellular Signaling, Department of Biochemistry, Institute of Pharmacology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Smêtna 12, PL 31-343 Kraków, Poland
Chronic treatment with citalopram does not affect the expression of a-adrenergic receptor subtypes. G. KREINER, A. BIELAWSKI, A. ZELEK- MOLIK, M. KOWALSKA, I. NALEPA. Pol. J. Pharmacol., 2004, 56, 831–836.
We previously reported that chronic treatment with imipramine and elec- troconvulsive shock up-regulate the density and a)-adrenergic receptor (a)-AR) mRNA level in the rat prefrontal cortex, while the expression of the a* subtype was unchanged. The present study examined whether re- peatedly given citalopram, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, induces any changes in the expression ofa)anda*subtypes ofa-AR. The recep- tors density was assessed in the rat cerebral cortex by [!H]prazosin binding while the expression ofa)anda*receptors’ mRNA was measured in the rat prefrontal cortex by Northern blot analysis or competitive reverse tran- scription and polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), respectively. We did not find any changes ina)- anda*-AR density or mRNA expression in the in- vestigated rat brain structures of citalopram-treated rats. Thus, it seems that up-regulation ofa)-AR subtype is characteristic only of those antidepres- sant agents in which a noradrenergic component is involved in their pharma- cological mechanism of action.
Key words: citalopram, [!H]prazosin binding, mRNA expression, brain cortex, rat
Copyright © 2004 by Institute of Pharmacology
Polish Academy of Sciences Polish Journal of Pharmacology
Pol. J. Pharmacol., 2004, 56, 831836 ISSN 1230-6002
correspondence; e-mail: nfnalepa@cyf-kr.edu.pl