Role of dopamine storage function in the control of rat striatal tyrosine hydroxylase activity

Pretreatment of rats with reserpine prevents and post-treatment with RO4-1284 depletes the gamma-butyrolactone (GBL)-induced increase of striatal dopamine (DA) levels. This suggests that the accumulation of DA in striatal nerve endings that normally follows GBL-induced cessation of nigrostriatal impulse flow is in reserpine-sensitive sites. Three days after a single injection of reserpine, the ability of either haloperidol, a DA receptor blocker, or GBL to enhance DA synthesis is greatly reduced and these responses recover slowly over a two week period. Similarly, the ability of haloperidol to elevate striatal DA metabolite concentrations shows a similar pattern of inhibition. The rate of recovery after reserpine of haloperidol effects on DA metabolite concentrations and the activation of striatal tyrosine hydroxylase (measured in vivo by the 30 min L-DOPA accumulation after decarboxylase inhibition with NSD-1015) after either haloperidol or GBL parallels the rate of recovery of basal DA levels. The accumulation of DA after GBL proceeds for 60 min before beginning to plateau in normal rats, but 3 days after reserpine the DA elevation stops after 15 min and lasts for only 30 min in 10 day reserpinized animals. The initial 15 min accumulation of DA after GBL is the same in normal, 3 day and 10 day reserpinized rats, indicating that the initial enzymic rate of activity is the same, but the duration of activation is less. Thus, inhibition of DA storage function by reserpine alters the coupling of DA autoreceptor activity with tyrosine hydroxylase activity. It is suggested that DA storage function modulates tyrosine hydroxylase activity by controlling the amount of DA available for attachment to and inhibition of tyrosine hydroxylase enzyme. This hypothesis is consistent with recent immunocytochemical observations which suggest an association of tyrosine hydroxylase with synaptic vesicles in DA neuronal terminal areas.