PREVALENCE OF HIGH SEROTONIN UPTAKE IN LYMPHOCYTES OF ABSTINENT ALCOHOLICS

An impairment in serotonergic neurotransmission may be associated with alcoholism. We recently identified a high-affinity serotonin transpor ter (5-HTT) in human peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBLs). Moreover, mo lecular analysis of RNA samples of human lymphocytes using reverse tra nscription, coupled with polymerase chain reaction, enabled us to conf irm the expression of a 5-HTT identical to the one reported in neurona l tissues, as evidenced by hybridization and sequence analysis. In thi s investigation, we measured the serotonin (5-HT) uptake in PBLs of re covering alcoholics (N = 10) with long-term abstinence (2-10 years) an d non-alcoholic controls (N = 10). 5-HT uptake was measured by incubat ing 1 x 10(7) cells of PBLs with [H-3]5-HT (3-1000 nM; sp. act. 23 Ci/ mmol) for 10 min at 37 degrees. The results of this preliminary study revealed that abstinent alcoholics had significantly (P < 0.01) increa sed uptake of 5-HT (43.6 +/- 5.70 pmol/10(7) cells) as compared with c ontrols (23.33 +/- 2.50 pmol/10(7) cells). An enhanced uptake of 5-HT in PBLs of abstinent alcoholics agrees with previously reported observ ations of increased 5-HT uptake in brain and platelets of former alcoh olics and their descendants. This suggested that a serotonergic mechan ism may be linked to the heredity of alcoholism. Copyright (C) 1996 El sevier Science Inc.