Key Words: PCB; quantal catecholamine release; rat PC12 phaeochromocytoma cells; carbon fiber microelectrode amperometry.The neurotoxic potential of specific polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and related substances, many of which persist in the environment and may accumulate in biological tissues, is a matter of toxicological concern (Tilson and . Behavioral symptoms and brain neurotransmitter levels in exposed animals, as well as in vitro experimental data, indicate involvement of monoaminergic systems in PCB neurotoxicity and of the dopaminergic system in particular (for review see Seegal, 1995).Potential mechanisms underlying the effects of PCBs on the catecholaminergic system have been addressed using in vitro model systems. Several of the ortho-substituted, nonplanar PCB congeners reduce the dopamine contents of rat phaeochromocytoma (PC12) cells after 6 h of exposure with IC50 values Ͻ 100 M, whereas coplanar congeners are inactive in this respect . In an additional study of PC12 cells, the threshold concentrations of several PCB congeners to affect cellular dopamine contents and basal and evoked dopamine release were reported to be close to 10 M (Angus and Contreras, 1996). In primary cultured bovine adrenal chromaffin cells, exposed to 50 -100 M of the nonplanar congener 2,2Ј,4,4Ј-tetrachlorobiphenyl for 1 and 5 days, cellular catecholamine contents and evoked catecholamine release were reduced, and basal catecholamine release was enhanced. The coplanar congener 3,3Ј,4,4Ј-tetrachlorobiphenyl did not cause any of these effects at concentrations up to 100 M (Messeri et al., 1997).Experiments with rat PC12 and mouse neuroblastoma N1E-115 cells have shown that 30 -200 M 2,2Ј-dichlorobiphenyl (PCB 4) inhibits tyrosine hydroxylase. A less potent, partial inhibition of tyrosine hydroxylase activity by PCB 4 was observed in minced rat corpus striatum (Choksi et al., 1997). Uptake of dopamine into rat brain synaptosomes and into rat brain synaptic vesicles are both inhibited by micromolar concentrations of PCBs. Highly chlorinated congeners appear to inhibit the plasma membrane dopamine transporter more potently than the vesicular monoamine transporter (Mariussen et al., 1999;Mariussen and Fonnum, 2001). Exposure of primary cultured rat neocortical and cerebellar granule cells to micromolar concentrations of PCBs may lead to variety of early transient, sustained, and oscillatory elevations of the intracellular Ca 2ϩ concentration (Kodavanti et al., 1993;Carpenter et al., 1997;Mundy et al., 1999;Inglefield and Shafer, 2000;Inglefield et al., 2001). Elevation of the intracellular Ca 2ϩ concentration and of Ca 2ϩ /calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaM kinase II) activation, i.e., common intracellular signaling pathways, appear to be involved in PCB-induced release of insulin from RINm5F rat insuloma cells (Fischer et al., 1996(Fischer et al., , 1999 to cause an elevation of the intracellular Ca 2ϩ concentration (Wong et al., 2001). Several of the alleged mechanisms of action of PCBs would be expected to lead t...