Influence of chronic treatment with imipramine on mRNA levels in rat brain: Elevation of glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase levels

The differential display method was used to identify the intrinsic factor t hat changes its mRNA expression level in rat brain after a 14-day oral admi nistration of 20 mg/kg imipramine. The expression of a 180-bp band was mark edly enhanced by imipramine. The results of sequencing and a data base sear ch revealed that the isolated clone was glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrog enase (GAPDH) with a one-base difference. Enhancement of the expression by imipramine was observed in the amygdala. Quantitative PCR showed that imipr amine treatment significantly elevated the GAPDH/beta-actin ratio in the co rtex. These findings suggest that long-term treatment with imipramine stimu lates GAPDH mRNA expression.