Oxygen inhalation enhances striatal dopamine metabolism and monoamineoxidase enzyme inhibition prevents it: a microdialysis study.

In order to explore the effect of normobaric oxygen on the extracellular level of dopamine and its metabolites, oxygen (30, 60 and 90%) was administered to freely moving rats after the animals had been pretreated with either monoamineoxidase (MAO)-A and -B inhibitors (0.1 or 1 mg kg(-1) of clorgyline, 1 or 10 mg kg(-1) of selegiline and 75 mg kg(-1) pargyline) or control solution. The levels of dopamine and its metabolites were monitored in microdialysis samples collected every 20 min and directly applied to an on-line high-performance liquid chromatograph combined with electrochemical detection. Normobaric oxygen inhalation decreased the level of extracellular dopamine and increased that of 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) in a concentration-dependent manner. These changes were partly prevented by pre-treatment with low doses of selegiline or clorgyline, i.e. by conditions in which monoamineoxidase-A or -B was inhibited. When both isoforms of monoamineoxidase were inhibited, there was a drastic increase in extracellular concentrations of dopamine and 3-methoxytyramine, and the levels of DOPAC and homovanilic acid (HVA) were very low. These results indicate that the intracellular metabolism of cytoplasmic dopamine is enhanced by normobaric hyperoxia in rat striatum.