Lithium normalizes elevated intracellular sodium
Xian Huang1, Zhenmin Lei, Rif S El-Mallakh
1Mood Disorders Research Program, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Loiusville, KY 40292, USA.
Bipolar Disorders
|April 14, 2007
Summary
Lithium treatment normalizes elevated intracellular sodium levels in brain cells, a key finding for understanding bipolar disorder. This research provides the first evidence of lithium
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cell Biology
- Psychiatry
Background:
- Elevated intracellular sodium concentrations are observed in both mania and bipolar depression.
- This elevation is hypothesized to be central to the pathophysiology of mood disorders in bipolar illness.
- Reducing sodium influx is a proposed mechanism for mood stabilizers, but lithium's effect was unproven.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of lithium on intracellular sodium concentrations.
- To provide the first direct evidence of lithium's impact on intracellular sodium levels.
Main Methods:
- Utilized flame spectroscopic determination of intracellular sodium.
- Employed the human glioma cell line LN292.
- Treated cells with the sodium pump inhibitor ouabain, with and without lithium co-treatment.
Main Results:
- Ouabain (0.1 microM) treatment for 3 days doubled intracellular sodium concentration.
- Pre-treatment with lithium (1 mM) for 1 week normalized ouabain-induced elevations in intracellular sodium.
Conclusions:
- This study provides the first demonstration that lithium can normalize abnormally elevated intracellular sodium levels.
- This normalization of intracellular sodium may represent a significant mechanism underlying lithium's mood-stabilizing effects in bipolar disorder.
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