Subcellular fractionation of the tissue of the hypothalamus was carried out by differential centrifugation in experiments on rats. The effect of the antidepressant imipramine and the tranquilizer diazepam on the noradrenalin content was determined in the isolated fractions. The results showed that imipramine lowers the noradrenalin content in the synaptosomes but diazepam has no such effect. The adrenergic component thus plays an important role in the mechanism of action of the first of these substances, but not in the action of the second.
Key Words noradrenalin - hypothalamus - imipramine - diazepam
Laboratory of Pharmacology of the Nervous System, Institute of Pharmacology, Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, Moscow. Translated from Byulleten'' Éksperimental''noi Biologii i Meditsiny, Vol. 80, No. 10, pp. 67–69, October, 1975.