Cocaine, but not amphetamine, short term treatment elevates the density of rat brain vesicular monoamine transporter 2
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Updated: Aug 6, 2026

A Plate-Based Assay for the Measurement of Endogenous Monoamine Release in Acute Brain Slices
Published on: August 11, 2021
K Schwartz1, R Nachman, M Yossifoff
1Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Abstract:
We compared the effect of 5 days D-amphetamine (5 mg/kg/day i.p.) and cocaine (15 mg/kg/day i.p.) administration on the vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2) density in rat brain. VMAT2 expression was assessed by [(3)H]dihydrotetrabenazine high affinity binding. Cocaine administration led to significant increases in VMAT2 density in both prefrontal cortex (+40%, p < 0.01) and striatum (+23%, p < 0.05), while amphetamine did not affect VMAT2 expression. The upregulation of VMAT2 may serve as compensatory mechanism aimed to enhance the vesicular monoamine storage capacity.
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