Spiperone: evidence for uptake into secretory granules.

Spiperone, a dopamine antagonist widely used as a specific ligand for dopamine and serotonin receptors, is actively accumulated into the F4C1 strain of rat pituitary tumor cells. The accumulation of 10 nM [3H]spiperone was linear for 3 min and reached a steady state after 10 min. Spiperone accumulation was reduced 50% by preincubation with 5 microM reserpine, an inhibitor of biogenic amine transport into secretory granules, and was also blocked by monensin and ammonium chloride, both of which increase the pH of intracellular storage organelles. Uptake was not affected by replacing sodium in the buffer with lithium at equimolar concentrations. Spiperone at 1 microM inhibited by over 50% serotonin transport into membrane vesicles isolated from platelet dense granules; this concentration inhibited the Na+-dependent plasma membrane transport system less than 10%. The data indicate spiperone specifically interacts with the secretory granule amine transport system and suggest that this transport system is found in the F4C1 pituitary cell strain as well as in platelets and neurons. The data also suggest that experiments utilizing spiperone to measure dopamine and serotonin receptors be interpreted with caution.