Effect Of Therapeutic Lithium Carbonate Doses On Rat Brain Content Of Mood Regulating Neurotransmitters

The anti-depressant value of lithium on rat brain tissue was studied at different treatment periods to explore its impact on brain neurotransmitters related to mood disorders dopamine and histamine precursors with further highlighting on minerals implicated in their synthesis magnesium and calcium. We examined a therapeutic dose 75 mgkgd on four groups of rats 6each grouped according to duration into control group given saline group 1 acute study group given single dose left for 2 hours group 2 sub-acute study group given a dose each 3 days for 2 weeks group 3 and a chronic study group given a dose each 3 days for a month group 4. Brain content of dopamine and histamine was significantly decreased on acute treatment but increased for dopamine and decreased for histamine after 2 weeks while it flipped for each of them after one month of administration. Gama aminobutyrate GABA glycine and histidine were significantly decreased after each period of treatment while phenyl alanine was significantly decreased only after a month of treatment. These changes occurred with increased magnesium and decreased calcium brain content on both acute and sub-acute treatment. Brain content of both of them was decreased on chronic treatment. These actions reveal that lithium has a remarkable effect on brain neuronal function which probably postulates an interesting impact of lithium treatment in shifting amino acids and needed minerals in direction of improving the mood through neurotransmission homeostasis. List of abbreviations 5HT serotonin AA arachidonic acid Ach acetylcholine AD Alzheimer disease BD bipolar disorder BDNF brain-derived neurotrophic factor cAMP cyclic adenosine monophosphate Cdk5 cyclin-dependent kinase 5 ER endoplasmic reticulum GABA gamma-Aminobutyric acid GSK3 Glycogen synthase kinase 3 HDAC Histone deacetylase IL-1 Interleukin 1 beta IL-6 Interleukin 6 IP3 inositol 1 4 5-trisphosphate NMDA N-methyl-D-aspartic acid PAI-1 plasminogen activatorinhibitor-1 PD Parkinsons disease SNc substantianigra pars compacta TBARS Thiobarbituric acid reactive substances TNF- Tumor necrosis factor alpha.