Chronic treatment with fluoxetine decreases seizure threshold in naïve but not in rats exposed to the learned helplessness paradigm: Correlation with the hippocampal glutamate release.
The proconvulsive effect of the new generation of antidepressants remains controversial. The authors investigated in naïve rats the effect of chronic treatment with fluoxetine (FLX) on the convulsive threshold and on two parameters of the hippocampal glutamatergic neurotransmission: the in vitro glutamate release and the binding of [3H] MK801 to NMDA receptors. While the acute treatment with FLX provoked no change either in seizure susceptibility or in the glutamate release, the chronic treatment decreased the convulsive threshold in coincidence with an increment in the in vitro glutamate release. No significant effects on the binding of [3H] MK801 to NMDA receptors were found to be attributable to the FLX treatment. We also assessed the effect of the chronic treatment with FLX on the seizure threshold in rats exposed to an experimental model of depression, the learned helplessness paradigm (LH). While a decrease in the K+-stimulated glutamate release was observed in non treated LH animals, when they were chronically injected with FLX, no changes in the epileptic susceptibility and no increments in the glutamate release were found. Our results indicate that chronic treatment with FLX decreases the epileptic threshold in naïve but not in LH rats and that this effect correlates with the levels of the hippocampal glutamate release.
Ferrero
Alejandro J
AJ
Instituto de Investigaciones Farmacológicas (ININFA-UBA/CONICET), Junín 956, 5 piso, (1113) Buenos Aires, Argentina. aferrero@ffyb.uba.ar
Cereseto
Marina
M
Reinés
Analía
A
Bonavita
Carla D
CD
Sifonios
Laura L
LL
Rubio
Modesto C
MC
Wikinski
Silvia I
SI
D000818:Animals; D018687:Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation / Q000494:pharmacology*; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects; D003292:Convulsants; D016291:Dizocilpine Maleate / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D018691:Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists / Q000378:metabolism / Q000494:pharmacology; D005473:Fluoxetine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000378:metabolism*; D006380:Helplessness, Learned; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism*; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008297:Male; D010433:Pentylenetetrazole; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / Q000187:drug effects / Q000378:metabolism; D012640:Seizures / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000187:drug effects
D018687:Antidepressive Agents, Second-Generation; D003292:Convulsants; D018691:Excitatory Amino Acid Antagonists; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate; D005473:Fluoxetine; D018698:Glutamic Acid; D016291:Dizocilpine Maleate; D010433:Pentylenetetrazole