Daniali Samira, Madjd Zahra, Shahbazi Ali, Niknazar Somayeh, Shahbazzadeh Delavar
Dept. of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS), Tehran, Iran.
Physiology Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences (IUMS), Tehran, Iran.
Iran Biomed J. 2013;17(3):134-9. doi: 10.6091/ibj.1173.2013.
Ritalin has high tendency to be abused. It has been the main indication to control attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The college students may seek for it to improve their memory, decrease the need for sleep (especially during exams), which at least partially, can be related to serotonergic system. Therefore, it seems worthy to evaluate the effect of Ritalin intake on mature brain. There are many studies on Ritalin effect on developing brain, but only few studies on adults are available. This study was undertaken to find Ritalin effect on serotonin transporter (SERT) density in medial frontal cortex (MFC) of mature rat.
Thirty male Wistar rats were used in the study. Rats were assigned into five groups (n = 6 per group): one control, two Ritalin and two vehicle groups. Twelve rats received Ritalin (20 mg/kg/twice a day) orally for eleven continuous days. After one week of withdrawal and another two weeks of rest, in order to evaluate short-term effects of Ritalin, six rats were sacrificed. Another six rats were studied to detect the long-term effects of Ritalin; therefore, they were sacrificed 12 weeks after the previous group. The immunohistochemistry was performed to evaluate the results.
Immunohistochemistry studies showed a higher density of SERT in both 2 and 12 weeks after withdrawal from Ritalin intake in MFC of rat and there was no significant difference between these two groups.
Our findings demonstrated both short- and long-term effects of Ritalin on frontal serotonergic system after withdrawal period.
利他林极易被滥用。它一直是控制注意力缺陷多动障碍的主要药物。大学生可能会寻求使用它来提高记忆力、减少睡眠需求（尤其是在考试期间），这至少部分与血清素能系统有关。因此，评估服用利他林对成熟大脑的影响似乎很有价值。关于利他林对发育中大脑影响的研究很多，但针对成年人的研究却很少。本研究旨在探究利他林对成年大鼠内侧前额叶皮质（MFC）中血清素转运体（SERT）密度的影响。
本研究使用了30只雄性Wistar大鼠。大鼠被分为五组（每组n = 6）：一组为对照组，两组为利他林组，两组为赋形剂组。12只大鼠连续11天每天口服利他林（20毫克/千克，分两次服用）。停药一周后再休息两周，为评估利他林的短期影响，处死6只大鼠。另外6只大鼠用于检测利他林的长期影响，因此在第一组大鼠处死12周后将它们处死。通过免疫组织化学方法评估结果。
免疫组织化学研究显示，大鼠MFC在停用利他林后的2周和12周时SERT密度均较高，且这两组之间无显著差异。
我们的研究结果表明，在停药期后，利他林对额叶血清素能系统具有短期和长期影响。
