Interaction of (+)‐amphetamine with cerebral dopaminergic neurones in two strains of mice, that show different temperature responses to this drug

Abstract

Summary1. (+ )-Amphetamine sulphate elicits a dose-dependent hyperthermia in NMRI mice but it does not significantly increase the body temperature of CsH mice.2. When low doses of (+)-amphetamine are given, the body temperature of C3H mice decreases. 3. (+)-Amphetamine decreases the noradrenaline concentration in the brainstem and increases the homovanillic acid concentration (HVA) in the striatum of NMRI mice, but only slightly reduces the noradrenaline concentration and does not change the HVA concentration in the brains of C3H mice. 4. The two strains appear to show a difference in the metabolism of dopamine in the striatum. The rates at which dopamine disappears from the tissue after blocking catecholamine synthesis with a-methyltyrosine and the rates at which HVA accumulates after blocking the active transport of this metabolite out of the brain with probenecid suggest that the turnover of dopamine is lower in C3H mice than in NMRI mice.

General Pharmacology of Amphetamine-Like Drugs

“…B.U) and that miee that are insensitive to the hyperthermie action of amphetamine are not NA depleted (CACCIA et al, 1973;. B.U) and that miee that are insensitive to the hyperthermie action of amphetamine are not NA depleted (CACCIA et al, 1973;.…”

“…Measurement of HVA. In some mouse strains, brain HV A levels do not increase after amphetamine CACCIA et al, 1973). ), HVA levels increase in cats (LAVERTY and SHARMAN, 1965), rats, and mice BERNARDI, 1969,1972;ROFFLER-T ARLOV et al , 1971;FUENTES and DEL RIO, 1972;JORI and DOLFINI, 1974).…”

“…(For the discussion of effect of aggregation on the pharmacology of amphetamine in mice see Subsect. Differences between mouse strains with respect to NA depletion have been shown (DOLFINI et al, 1969b(DOLFINI et al, , 1970CACCIA et al, 1973). MooRE (1963) showed that there was a dose-dependent decrease in brain NA after administration of 3-30 mg/kg of d-amphetamine sulphate to isolated mice 2 h before sacrifice.…”

“…Even though there is a correlation between increased brain HV A levels and hyperthermia after amphetamine in rats, the relation between increased body temperature and brain DA or NA turnover after threshold doses of amphetamine is not very striking (GROPPETII et al, 1972a;. In amphetamine-sensitive mice the brain DA turnover seems to be more rapid than in insensitive animals (CACCIA et al, 1973). In amphetamine-sensitive mice the brain DA turnover seems to be more rapid than in insensitive animals (CACCIA et al, 1973).…”