Rapid desensitization of 5-HT1A receptors in Fawn-Hooded rats after chronic fluoxetine treatment

Anxiety, platelet serotonin (5-HT) content and functions of the 5-HT1A receptor agonist 8-hydroxy-2-(di-n-propylamino)tetralin (8-OH-DPAT) were measured in Sprague-Dawley (SD) and Fawn-Hooded (FH) rats, a strain with genetically impaired 5-HT storage and reuptake system and a putative model of depression and anxiety. In addition, the effects of 7 and 16 days treatment with the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) fluoxetine on 8-OH-DPAT-induced responses were studied. FH rats showed significantly higher anxiety in the social interaction test, and much lower platelet 5-HT content compared to SD rats. The efficacy of 8-OH-DPAT (15-120 mug/kg, i.v.) to induce lower lip retraction (an effect mediated by median raphe receptors) was increased in FH rats. In most FH but only a few SD rats a special neurological syndrome, clonic movement of the masseters and in-and-out movement of the eyeballs, was induced by 8-OH-DPAT, and this behaviour like other effects of 8-OH-DPAT, was completely blocked by pretreatment with the 5-HT1A receptor antagonist WAY-100635. In SD rats fluoxetine (10 mg/kg/day, i.p.) caused a moderate inhibition of 8-OH-DPAT-induced hypothermia, an effect mediated most likely by hypothalamic 5-HT1A receptors, (-19% and -40% after 7 and 16 days of fluoxetine, 24 h after the last injection, respectively). In FH rats fluoxetine caused a rapid and complete reduction in the 8-OH-DPAT-induced hypothermia (-65% and -91% after 7 and 16 days of fluoxetine, respectively). Fluoxetine caused no change in lower lip retraction but a reduction in the masseter-eyeball syndrome in both SD and FH rats. Our data provide evidence that in FH rats, median raphe 5-HT1A receptors are hypersensitive, and the hypothalamic 5-HT1A receptor desensitization, caused by SSRI antidepressants, is faster and more complete. These data support the notion that chronic treatment with SSRIs induces a desensitization of some 5-HT1A receptor populations, and impaired 5-HT storage and reuptake may accelerate this process. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.