Quantitation of soluble superoxide dismutase in rat striata, based on the inhibition of nitrite formation from hydroxylammonium chloride.
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1-Naphthylamine↗
Biomedical subjects
V Glover
Publications and source records attributed to V Glover.
Serum cortisol levels are related to moods of elation and dysphoria in new mothers.
Serum cortisol levels were measured in 163 women on the third day after childbirth. Significantly elevated levels of cortisol were found to be associated with the "blues," and significantly lower levels characterized women who exhibited mild hypomania (the "highs"). Low levels of cortisol were independently associated with epidural anesthesia, while elevated levels were related to assisted delivery. There was no significant association with breast or bottle feeding. Changes in serum cortisol were thus found to parallel the mild bidirectional changes in affect that frequently follow childbirth.
Adult↗
Dysphoria and immune status in postpartum women.
This study investigated the relationship between psychological factors and circulating immune cell populations in postpartum women. The study group was 75 women who had vaginal deliveries and were free of psychotropic medication. Four days postpartum each subject completed three mood questionnaires, and a small blood sample was taken. All questionnaire scores were shown to be highly inter-correlated and principal component factor analysis revealed a single factor which we term dysphoria. This factor was significantly associated with lower total circulating lymphocyte counts. The effect was strongest for T cells (largely attributable to a reduction in CD4+ ve T helper cells) and weaker for NK cell counts. No evidence was found of a mediating role for serum cortisol although serum cortisol levels were weakly related to immune status. This study has thus demonstrated that changes in the distribution of the lymphocyte pool are associated with relatively minor differences in postpartum affect.
Adolescent↗
Mild hypomania (the highs) can be a feature of the first postpartum week. Association with later depression.
About 10% of women show elation and associated features of hypomania in the first 5 days following childbirth. These symptoms can be detected using a self-rating scale (the 'Highs') based on SADS-L criteria. This phenomenon has been confirmed using the observer-rated Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale, which also revealed a high degree of related irritability. Significantly more women scoring > or = 8 on the Highs scale at 3 days postpartum went on to manifest depression at 6 weeks than did subjects with no psychopathology in the early puerperium. It is suggested that the 'highs' followed by depression may be a mild and common form of bipolar disorder.
Adult↗
The effect of pergolide and MDL 72974 on rat brain CuZn superoxide dismutase.
It has previously been shown that both the dopamine receptor agonist, pergolide, and the monoamine oxidase inhibitor, (-)-deprenyl, can cause induction of CuZn superoxide dismutase in the rat striatum. We have now confirmed this effect of pergolide (0.04 mg/kg i.p.) as being localised to the striatum, but not the cerebellum, and shown it to take 3 weeks to develop. Furthermore, we have found that MDL 72974, a more specific monoamine oxidase inhibitor than (-)-deprenyl, failed to bring about such an induction either at a low selective monoamine oxidase B inhibitory dose, or at a higher non-selective dose.
Allyl Compounds↗
Phenolic substances in red wine and release of platelet 5-hydroxytryptamine.
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Blood Platelets↗
Platelet monoamine oxidase B activity in Parkinson's disease: a re-evaluation.
An increase in platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO) B activity in drug-free parkinsonians (n = 6) compared with healthy controls (n = 10) has been confirmed using both phenylethylamine (PEA) and dopamine as substrates, reaching statistical significance in the case of PEA oxidising activity (p < 0.05). Thus, certain reports of raised platelet MAO B activity towards PEA but decreased activity towards dopamine in parkinsonians, raising the possibility of the existence of an abnormal form of MAO B in this condition, cannot be supported.
Aged↗
5HT in migraine patients with medication-induced headache.
Whole blood 5HT levels were measured in seven female migraine sufferers with chronic daily headache due to medication abuse, before and after abrupt medication withdrawal. A statistically significant increase in 5HT levels, from mean 4.89 mumol/l to mean 6.59 mumol/l (p < 0.05, Wilcoxon signed rank test), occurred after 4 weeks of withdrawal. We conclude from this pilot study that 5HT may be important in the physiopathogenesis of chronic daily headache. Alternatively, reduced 5HT may be the result of chronic daily headache or else an epiphenomenon.
Adult↗
Changes in plasma cortisol and catecholamine concentrations in response to massage in preterm infants.
The biochemical and clinical response to massage in preterm infants was assessed. Eleven stable infants, of 29 weeks' median gestational age, median birth weight 980 g, and median postnatal age 20 days, were studied. Blood samples were obtained for the determination of adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol 45 minutes before the start of massage and approximately one hour after completion of massage. Cortisol, but not catecholamine, concentrations decreased consistently after massage (median difference -35.8 nmol/l; 95% confidence interval -0.5 to -94.0, Wilcoxon matched pairs). There was a slight decrease in skin temperature (median difference -0.36 degrees C, 95% confidence interval -0.09 to -0.65) but there was no change in oxygenation or oxygen requirement. This study has shown that it is possible to detect an objective hormonal change following a supposedly 'non-therapeutic' intervention in preterm infants. The development of such methods of assessment are likely to be of particular relevance in the extremely immature or ill neonate in whom behavioural evaluation cannot play more than a limited part.
Birth Weight↗
The tyramine test is not a marker for postnatal depression: early postpartum euphoria may be.
Abnormally low tyramine test values are known to be markers for vulnerability to unipolar, but not bipolar, endogenous depression. In the present study, 37 women with recent postnatal depression (25 major, 12 minor) and 22 puerperal controls with no depressive disorder, all assessed by Schedule for Affective Disorder and Schizophrenia (SADS-L) interview, together with 17 other controls, underwent the test. No significant differences in tyramine sulfate output were demonstrated between the different groups. Those subjects with endogenous features according to Newcastle score (n = 7) or Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) (n = 6) also had normal output. Thus, the tyramine test does not appear to be a useful marker for vulnerability to postnatal depression. Over half the subjects recalled that their postnatal depression had started in the first 2 weeks postpartum. Of the total of 62 postpartum subjects interviewed with the SADS-L, ten recalled a period of euphoria in the first postpartum week, which met RDC for hypomania and eight of them went on to become depressed postnatally. An additional patient from the total group was hospitalized with mania.
Adult↗
Effects of dopaminergic drugs on superoxide dismutase: implications for senescence.
Both (-)-deprenyl and pergolide have been found to induce superoxide dismutase (SOD) in rat striata. There are several reports showing that strains or species with higher levels of SOD live longer. Other studies indicate that (-)-deprenyl can increase life expectancy in rats and that both (-)-deprenyl and pergolide may retard nigrostriatal degeneration. This present paper suggests that all these findings are linked, and that (-)-deprenyl and pergolide possess neuroprotective properties by virtue of an activated removal of toxic oxygen radicals.
Aging↗
Monoamine oxidase-B, monoamine oxidase-B inhibitors, and Parkinson's disease. A role for superoxide dismutase?
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1-Methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine↗
Increase of brain endogenous monoamine oxidase inhibitory activity (tribulin) in experimental audiogenic seizures in rats: evidence for a monoamine oxidase A inhibiting component of tribulin.
Brain tribulin activity in rats with an inherited predisposition to audiogenic epilepsy was studied after seizures of different intensity were induced by an electric bell. Weak seizures (from 0 to 2 arbitrary units) did not produce any changes in endogenous inhibitory activity towards either monoamine oxidase (MAO) A or B. Moderate seizures were characterized by increases in both MAO A and MAO B inhibitory activity (up to 1.9-fold). Complete tonic epileptiform seizures with total areflexia (4 arbitrary units) induced further augmentation (up to 2.5-fold) of MAO A but not of MAO B inhibitory activity. This dissociation between the two inhibitory activities points to the existence of a separate MAO A-inhibiting component of brain tribulin which is different from isatin.
Animals↗
Inhibitory potency of some isatin analogues on human monoamine oxidase A and B.
Isatin is an endogenous compound which acts as a selective inhibitor of monoamine oxidase (MAO) B. In this study a range of isatin analogues were tested for their in vitro inhibition of human MAO A and B. Most of the analogues were less potent than isatin. Hydroxylation of the aromatic ring changed the inhibitory potency in favour of MAO A, with 5-hydroxyisatin being a potent and selective MAO A inhibitor (IC50 8 microM). Isatinic acid, which is formed reversibly from isatin at alkaline pH, showed no inhibition.
Blood Platelets↗
Pergolide can induce soluble superoxide dismutase in rat striata.
Pergolide, a dopamine receptor agonist, given daily i.p. for three weeks at 0.04 mg/kg and 0.4 mg/kg, significantly induced soluble (Cu-Zn) superoxide dismutase in the rat striatum, while having no effect on the mitochondrial (Mn) form of the enzyme. Such induction, which can also be effected by (-)-deprenyl, may help to protect against nigrostriatal degeneration.
Animals↗
Abnormal platelet 5-hydroxytryptamine uptake and imipramine binding in postnatal dysphoria.
Platelet 14C-5-hydroxytryptamine (14C-5-HT) uptake, 3H-imipramine binding and monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity were measured in women 5 days postpartum and compared with depression scores (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale) at that time and 6 weeks later. Mean Km of 14C-5-HT uptake was significantly reduced in the group showing dysphoria at 5 days (p less than 0.01). Mean Kd of 3H-imipramine binding was significantly increased in the group who later went on to become depressed at 6 weeks postpartum (p less than 0.03). Vmax for 14C-5-HT uptake, Bmax for 3H-imipramine binding and MAO activity did not differ between depressed and non-depressed patients on either occasion. Although the observed changes manifested in a system known to be disturbed in other forms of depression, they were in affinity rather than Bmax or Vmax. Even though probably not of direct physiological significance, such results, if confirmed, together with other pointers in the literature, suggest biochemical abnormalities specific to the puerperal period.
Adult↗
Is the tyramine test for depressive illness useful in elderly patients?
There were no significant differences in tyramine sulphate excretion following tyramine ingestion between elderly depressed, demented or control patient groups, in contrast with younger subjects where this test is a trait marker for unipolar endogenous depression. There are inherent problems in urine collection studies in the elderly and the results may have been influenced by the medication that elderly patients have to take for other disorders. This study suggests that the tyramine test is unlikely to be of clinical usefulness in the over 65 age group.
Aged↗
Do biochemical factors play a part in postnatal depression?
1. There are major changes in progesterone, oestrogen, cortisol and beta-endorphin level associated with parturition, and as all these can be psychoactive it is likely that they contribute to the mood changes that can occur at this time. However evidence for their involvement is, at present, indirect. 2. Postnatal depression itself appears to be a heterogeneous condition with different times of onset, and it is probable that various biological and social factors play a role to a differing degree in different individuals. 3. About half of postnatal depression appears to arise in the first two weeks after childbirth. Some cases follow a period of early euphoria. 4. A different subgroup is associated with thyroid dysfunction, which peaks two to five months postpartum. 5. The tyramine test does not predict vulnerability to postnatal depression. 6. It is suggested that in future research the time course of onset of the depression, and the nature of the mood changes that occur in the first postpartum week, are investigated as possibly relevant variables.
Affect↗