Tamoxifen counteracts estradiol induced effects on striatal and hypophyseal dopamine receptors

We investigated the ability of Tamoxifen (TAM), an antiestrogen drug, to counteract the modifications induced by estrogens on dopamine (DA) receptors on striatum and on adenohypophysis of ovex female rats. Subacute treatment with 17 beta-estradiol (E2) at both low (0.1 micrograms/kg) and high (20 micrograms/kg) doses confirmed its ability to increase the number of striatal 3H-Spiperone (3H-SPI) binding sites in a dose dependent manner. By contrast in the pituitary, only high doses of estrogen were effective in reducing the number of DA receptors. We treated ovex female rats for 15 days with TAM alone or associated with E2, to see if these estrogenic effects could be suppressed by an antiestrogenic drug. TAM did not affect the number of striatal DA receptors, but significantly increased the adenohypophyseal DA binding sites, without varying their affinity. No changes were observed in pituitary and striatal DA receptor density, even when TAM was injected in association with estradiol.

TAM is able to counteract the effects estrogens have on DA receptors. However there is some evidence that it could influence the pituitary DA systems independently of its antiestrogenic activity.