[Multiple forms of monoaminoxidase in the rat brain during experimental catatonia]

Catalytic properties of multiple forms (separated by affinity chromatography) of rats brain mitochondrial monoamine oxidase (MAO, MAO-I, MAO-11 alpha, MAO-11 beta, MAO-111) have been studied in the animals selected for propensity to development of catatonic syndrome considered as an experimental model of the catatonic syndrome occurring in schizophrenia. It was shown that in experimental catatonia (as compared with rats of the corresponding control group) there was a dramatic increase in the brain stem of the rate of oxidative deamination of beta-phenylethylamine catalyzed by MAO-III; there was also a statistically significant (albeit less expressed than in the experiments with beta-phenylethylamine) increase in the rate of deamination of tyramine and a decrease in the rate of deamination of serotonin. In the systems with MAO-II beta we detected statistically significant increase in the rates of deamination of tyramine and beta-phenylethylamine in experimental catatonia as compared with corresponding control. Studies of multiple forms of brain MAO provide more informative data than estimation of "total" MAO activity (without separation of the multiple forms of this enzyme).