Variation of tryptophan-5-hydroxylase concentration in the rat raphe dorsalis nucleus after p-chlorophenylalanine administration. I. A model to study the turnover of the enzymatic protein.

An immunoblot procedure was developed to quantify the amount of tryptophan hydroxylase (TpOH), the rate limiting enzyme in the synthesis of serotonin, in the rat raphe dorsalis nucleus (NRD). Using this method we have studied the time course variations in TpOH protein level after a single p-chlorophenylalanine (PCPA) i.p. injection (300 mg/kg). PCPA provoked a rapid and large decrease of TpOH in the NRD, without affecting neuron-specific enolase in the NRD or TpOH in the locus coeruleus. The decrease in TpOH was maximum (-60% of the control value) 2 days after the drug administration and followed a monoexponential law which allowed us to estimate the half-life of this enzymatic protein as 1.43 days and to postulate that, during these 2 days, TpOH synthesis was inhibited. The neosynthesis of TpOH molecules from 2 to 7 days was estimated to be 57.8 U TpOH/NRD/day which was comparable to the initial steady state of synthesis (48.44 U TpOH/NRD/day). In vivo administration of 6-fluorotryptophan or in vitro incubation of raphe homogenates with either halogenated derivative had no effect on TpOH protein levels. PCPA should be an interesting tool to study the turnover rate of TpOH protein.