INVARIANCE OF THE DENSITY OF DOPAMINE UPTAKE SITES AND DOPAMINE METABOLISM IN THE RAT-BRAIN AFTER A CHRONIC TREATMENT WITH THE DOPAMINE UPTAKE INHIBITOR GBR-12783

A chronic treatment (10mg/kg, twice daily during 9 days) with the dopa mine uptake inhibitor GBR 12783 was performed in rats at a dose increa sing their locomotor activity. Forty-eight hours after the last admini stration, animals were sacrificed and H-3 mazindol binding was perform ed on brain slices. Autoradiographic analysis revealed no change in th is binding relatively to control animals in regions with high dopamine contents: striatum, nucleus accumbens, olfactory tubercle, substantia nigra and ventral tegmentum area. The treatment did not either modify the levels of dopamine (DA) and metabolites (HVA, DOPAC) both in the striatum and the nucleus accumbens. Thus, early after the end of the t reatment, the chronic blockade of the dopamine uptake complex regulate s neither the dopamine uptake complex nor the dopamine metabolism.