2003 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
The role of serotonin transporter during neurodevelopment in the formation of biological vulnerability to depression
| Project/Area Number |
14570941
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Section | 一般 |
|---|
| Research Field |
Psychiatric science
|
|---|
| Research Institution | University of the Air |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
SEMBA Jun'ichi University of the Air, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Professor, 教養学部, 教授 (30183429)
|
|---|
| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
SUHARA Tetsuya National Institute of Radiological Medicine, Senior Researcher, 脳機能イメージング研究開発促進室, 特別上席研究員 (90216490)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2002 – 2003
|
| Keywords | depression / serotonin / serotonin transporter / noradrenaline / noradrenaline transporter / animal model |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
As one of risk factors for the precipitation of depressive disorders, several environmental factors, such as starvation during pregnancy or adverse feeding, have been proposed. Serotonin transporter is one of important proteins, which regulates bioavailability of serotonin at the synaptic level. The aim of the present study is to investigate the effects of neonatal disruption of serotonin transporter function on biological vulnerability to depression. Neonatal rats were injected s.c. with fluoxetine (10 mg/kg), citalopram (10 mg/kg) or saline daily from PD2 to PD15. On PD90 rats' brain were removed and the expression of mRNA for serotonin transporter in the raphe and for noradrenalin transporter in the locus ceruleus were determined by in situ hybridization. No significant differences were observed in the expressions of these transporters between fluoxetine, citalopram and control rats. These results suggest that the disruption of serotonin transporter function during neonatal period did not result in change of mRNA expression of these transporters in adult brain. Further study will be needed to investigate the expression of transporter proteins using radio-labeled ligands.
|
