Dopamine receptor mediated inhibition by pergolide of electrically-evoked 3H-dopamine release from striatal slices of cat and rat: slight effect of ascorbate.

The dopamine receptor agonist pergolide inhibited the calcium-dependent, electrically evoked overflow of tritium from slices of the striatum of cat or rat prelabelled with 3H-dopamine. This inhibition of tritium overflow by nanomolar concentrations of pergolide was antagonized by the benzamide neuroleptic S-sulpiride (0.1 microM). In millimolar concentrations, L- ascorbate had slight or no effects on this dopamine receptor mediated inhibition, in striatal slices of either the cat or the rat. Since these same concentrations of ascorbate have been reported to completely block the specific binding of 3H-2-amino-6,7-dihydroxy-1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalene (ADTN) and of 3H-apomorphine to presumed dopamine receptors, the present results suggest a dissociation between the characteristics of 3H-ADTN and 3H-apomorphine binding and the dopamine autoreceptor. Previous contradictory results concerning the existence of inhibitory dopamine receptors which modulate depolarization-evoked overflow of dopamine from the striatum of the rat are thus apparently not due to a species difference nor to the use of ascorbate, but rather to differences in experimental conditions.