[3H]-ketanserin binding sites in different psychiatric disorders

The results of the present study showed the presence of a high-affinity and saturable binding of [3H]-ketanserin to frontal and parietal brain membranes obtained postmortem from bipolar, depressed, schizophrenic patients and normal controls. The human brain samples (60 frontal cortex and 51 parietal cortex), were donated by the Stanley Foundation Brain Collection. The overall data showed that normal controls, depressed and schizophrenic patients had a higher density in the frontal than in the parietal cortex, while bipolar patients did not show any difference. When the data were analysed according to the two hemispheres, some additional, intriguing observations were made: it emerged that [3H]-ketanserin binding sites did not show any difference in the two frontal cortices, while they were less represented in the right parietal cortex of normal and bipolar patients and more dense in schizophrenic patients. In conclusion, our study has demonstrated the presence of heterogenous alterations of [3H]-ketanserin binding sites in healthy controls and different psychiatric disorders that may be of help in a further elucidation of the specific role that 5-HT(2A) receptors may play in these disorders.