Regulation of norepinephrine transporter abundance by catecholamines and desipramine in vivo.
The norepinephrine transporter (NET) regulates adrenoreceptor signaling by controlling the availability of synaptic norepinephrine (NE), and it is a direct target for some classes of antidepressant drugs. NET levels are normal in dopamine beta-hydroxylase knockout (Dbh -/-) mice that lack NE, demonstrating that the NET does not require endogenous NE for appropriate regulation under physiological conditions. In contrast, tyrosine hydroxylase knockout (Th -/-) mice that lack both NE and dopamine (DA) have reduced levels of NET, suggesting that it is down-regulated by a complete absence of catecholamines and not NE per se. Chronic treatment with the NET inhibitor, desipramine (DMI), reduced NET levels in both control and Dbh -/- mice, demonstrating that NE is not required for the regulation of NET by antidepressant drugs. There are some qualitative and quantitative differences in the down-regulation of the NET by catecholamine depletion and DMI treatment, suggesting that different mechanisms may be involved.
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CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL GENE-Y GENE-Y GENE-Y GENE-Y CHEMICAL GENE-Y GENE-Y GENE-Y GENE-Y GENE-N GENE-Y GENE-Y GENE-Y GENE-Y GENE-Y CHEMICAL GENE-Y GENE-Y CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL CHEMICAL
NE desipramine NE norepinephrine catecholamines desipramine NET dopamine beta-hydroxylase Dbh NET norepinephrine NET tyrosine hydroxylase norepinephrine transporter Th adrenoreceptor NET NET NET Dbh NET NE NET norepinephrine transporter NE NE norepinephrine NE dopamine DA catecholamines