title: Visualization of the cortical dopamine transporter in type 1 and 2 alcoholics with human whole hemisphere autoradiography.
abstract: We measured cortical dopamine transporter (DAT) in Cloninger type 1 and 2 alcoholics by using [(125)I]PE2I as a radioligand in human postmortem whole hemispheric autoradiography, and evaluated the putative correlations of DAT between cortical areas and nucleus accumbens. There was a low, but distinct cortical binding in the cryosections. The mean binding was generally higher in both groups of alcoholics compared to controls, and the results reached statistical significance with a large effect size (1.25) in the temporal cortex of type 2 alcoholics. This is surprising, because several studies have reported lower DAT densities in the striatum among alcoholics compared to controls. Moreover, the density of DAT had a statistically significant positive correlation between temporal cortex and nucleus accumbens in controls, whereas among type 2 alcoholics the correlation was statistically significantly negative, which may suggest some pathology relating to the antisocial behaviour of these alcoholics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forensic Psychiatry, Niuvanniemi Hospital, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland. erkki.tupala@niuva.fi
authors.forename: Erkki
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tupala
authors.forename: Pirjo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Halonen
authors.forename: Jari
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tiihonen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000145:classification / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001345:Autoradiography / Q000379:methods; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000378:metabolism*; D050483:Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009662:Nortropanes / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D011180:Postmortem Changes; D011859:Radiography; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D014463:Ultrasonography
chemical_list: D050483:Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins; D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes; C113010:N-(3-iodoprop-2-enyl)-2-beta-carbomethoxy-3-(4-methylphenyl)nortropane; D009662:Nortropanes