Studies on the role of dopamine in the degeneration of 5‐HT nerve endings in the brain of Dark Agouti rats following 3,4‐methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or ‘ecstasy’) administration
British Journal of Pharmacology February 1, 1999 María Isabel Colado, Esther O’shea, R Granados et al. 82 citations
Dopamine does not appear to cause the damage to serotonin nerve endings that occurs in the brain of Dark Agouti rats after MDMA (ecstasy) administration. The drug haloperidol prevented both the acute rise in body temperature and the long-term loss of serotonin when given around the time of MDMA, but this protection was minimal when body temperature was kept high. MDMA increased dopamine levels in the brain by 800%, but boosting dopamine further with L-DOPA did not worsen the nerve damage, nor did it make a low, non-toxic dose of MDMA become toxic. The findings suggest that earlier studies linking dopamine to MDMA's neurotoxicity may have been confounded by effects on body temperature.