Preferential deamination of dopamine by an A type monoamine oxidase in rat brain

The effect of graded doses of clorgyline, a preferential inhibitor of MAO A, and of deprenil, a preferential inhibitor of MAO B, on the activities of serotonin-deaminating MAO (MAO A) of dopamine-deaminating MAO, and of phenethylamine-deaminating MAO, (MAO B), in rat corpus striatum were compared with the effects of the drugs on striatal levels of homovanillic acid(HVA) and 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC). The dose-response curves for the two last-mentioned dopamine metabolites closely follow those for MAO A and dopamine-deaminating activity, whether clorgyline or deprenil was used as MAO inhibitor. In addition, the effect of these drugs on dopamine levels and on the accumulation of 3H-dopamine + 3H-methoxytyramine formed from 3H-DOPA in rat whole brain was analysed. In contrast to the marked increases caused by clorgyline, the effects of deprenil were negligible. In reserpinized rats, clorgyline potentiated the effect of L-DOPA on motor activity; deprenil did not. These results suggest that the deamination of dopamine in vivo is almost entirely effected by MAO A.