Abstract
THE turnover of dopamine has been thought to be controlled by a ‘feedback’ pathway from the postsynaptic dopamine receptors in the striatum to the dopaminecontaining cells in the substantia nigra1. This concept formed the basis of an explanation of the effects of neuroleptics on dopamine turnover1,3. Evidence for a striato-nigral α-aminobutyrate (GABA)-containing pathway4,6 has supported the idea although there have been dissenting voices7,9. In particular, the discovery of dopamine receptors on the dopamine-containing cells themselves8,10 has led to the suggestion that these nigral receptors might explain results otherwise explained by the feedback hypothesis8. Nevertheless, the existence of these receptors does not exclude the action of feedback loop in the control of dopamine turnover. We report here an attempt to evaluate the action of the striato-nigral pathway in the control of dopamine metabolism. Our results suggest that lesions in the GABA-containing striato-nigral pathway, which spare the dopamine-containing fibres of the nigro-striatal system, do not affect dopamine metabolism in the nigro-striatal dopamine neurones or the increase in dopamine turnover after administration of haloperidol.
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GARCIA-MUNOZ, M., NICOLAOU, N., TULLOCH, I. et al. Feedback loop or output pathway in striato-nigral fibres?. Nature 265, 363–365 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1038/265363a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/265363a0
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