Modulation of dopamine receptor in the striatum by iron: behavioral and biochemical correlates.

The present study has shown that in the rat brain iron is unevenly distributed and may be associated with the dopaminergic neuron. The function of the large amounts of iron in certain brain areas, such as the pallidum, caudate nucleus, substantia nigra, nucleus accumbens, and olfactory tubercule, is not known. But it is obvious that by reduction of brain iron, as in the case of nutritional iron deficiency, certain dopamine-mediated behavioral phenomena and biochemical reactions are altered. These changes have been attributed to the selective reduction in dopamine D2 receptors and function in brain areas rich in dopamine neurons and iron. If iron is especially important to dopaminergic modulatory systems in the brain, its deficit might explain the increasing number of reports on behavioral disturbances, EEG, and event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with nutritional iron deficiency in children.