The major mechanism underlying the neuroleptic action of the tridecapeptide neurotensin (NT) appears to be an interaction with dopamine receptor mechanisms based on biochemical binding and behavioral experiments. In vivo microdialysis was used in conscious rats to investigate the effects of local perfusion with NT on the sensitivity of striatal dopamine DI and D2 receptors for their selective agonists by monitoring extracellular dopamine, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid, homovanilic acid, and r-aminobutyric acid levels in the awake unrestrained male rat. Perfusion with NT (10 nM) counteracted the inhibitory effects of the dopamine D2 agonist pergolide (500 nM) on extracellular levels of dopamine and y-aminobutyric acid. In contrast, NT (10 nM) significantly enhanced the reduction of extracellular striatal levels of dopamine after perfusion with the DI agonist SKF 38393 (5 IpM), and this combined treatment also resulted in a significant increase in the extracellular striatal levels of y-aminobutyric acid. These results provide in vivo evidence that NT regulates central dopamine transmission by reducing pre-and postsynaptic dopamine D2 and enhancing DI receptor sensitivity possibly through an antagonistic NT receptor-D2 receptor interaction. This heteroregulation has the potential to substantially increase the plasticity within the dopamine synapse.within the nerve cell membrane between NT and dopamine D2 receptors (10-12).In the present study we tested the hypothesis that in the neostriatum of the awake unrestrained rat (15), NT selectively reduces dopamine D2 receptor control of dopamine release, which leads to a switching of dopamine transmission toward dopamine D1 receptor-mediated responses. Toward this aim we investigated the effects of local perfusion with NT on the sensitivity of dopamine D1 and D2 receptors for their selective agonists by monitoring extracellular dopamine, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC), homovanilic acid (HVA), and GABA levels. Thus, we evaluated the effects of local perfusion of the neostriatum with NT alone (a high and a low dose) and with pergolide (a preferential dopamine D2 receptor agonist) or SKF 38393 (a preferential dopamine D1 receptor agonist) (16, 17) by measuring extracellular levels of dopamine, DOPAC, HVA (18), and GABA (19) from a microdialysis probe (20,21) permanently implanted into the neostriatum of the awake unrestrained male rat. Basal extracellular striatal dopamine and GABA levels measured using this technique have been shown (22-24) to be both voltage-and calcium-sensitive and as such can be considered to be derived predominantly from neuronal origin.The dopaminergic system in mammalian forebrain has been implicated in disorders such as schizophrenia and Parkinson disease. Therefore, the regulation of this system may have important implications for the pathophysiology and development of treatments of these disorders. The tridecapeptide neurotensin (NT) has been shown to be closely associated with this dopamine system and to display a neuroleptic or ...