Kinetic studies on uptake of serotonin and noradrenaline into pial arteries of rats.

A population of cerebrovascular nerve fibers have recently been found to store serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT). There is reason to assume that these 5-HT-containing fibers have a sympathetic rather than an intracerebral origin. This was further elucidated in the present study in which the uptake mechanisms of 5-HT and noradrenaline (NA) were characterized and compared in rat pial arteries by measuring the accumulation of [3H]5-HT and [14C]NA under various experimental conditions in vitro. Sympathectomized vessels served as blanks. The uptake into the perivascular sympathetic nerves was dependent on time as well as concentration and was saturable. The Km values were similar, 0.17 microM for 5-HT and 0.15 microM for NA, but the Vmax value was 10 times higher for NA (2.38 and 25 pmol/mg/15 min, respectively). The two amines competed with each other in the sympathetic uptake, as studied by inhibition of the accumulation of one labeled amine by the other nonlabeled amine. Corticosterone, acting on the extraneuronal process, significantly inhibited the 5-HT uptake but had no substantial effect on NA. Reserpine, blocking the intraaxonal vesicular stores, markedly attenuated the accumulation of NA, but not of 5-HT. The selective uptake blocker paroxetine reduced the 5-HT uptake with much higher potency than the NA uptake, whereas desipramine predominantly inhibited NA uptake. The pial 5-HT uptake was not significantly affected by lesion of the raphe complex, whereas it was reduced to half following superior cervical ganglionectomy. The results suggest that the 5-HT present in nerves associated with pial vessels at the base of the brain is taken up through an efficient axonal mechanism, functionally related but not identical to the uptake process for NA.