The effect of desipramine on the uptake of mescaline by cortical synaptosomes

The uptake of ¹⁴C-labelled noradrenaline and mescaline into a synaptosome-rich preparation from the rat cerebral cortex was studied. Noradrenaline was accumulated by the synaptosome-rich preparation by a temperature-dependent process which was competitively inhibited by desipramine. Mescaline was accumulated by a temperature- and sodium-dependent process. The uptake of mescaline was not affected by desipramine. The uptake of noradrenaline was inhibited by mescaline in a non-competitive manner; this suggests that the uptake of mescaline is not brought about by the noradrenaline uptake mechanism.