Effects of alpha-methyl-p-tyrosine on extracellular dopamine levels in the nucleus accumbens and the dorsal striatum of freely moving rats

Alpha-methyl-p-tyrosine (AMPT) is known to inhibit the formation of dopamine (DA) in the cytosol of dopaminergic neurons and is therefore used to study the role of the cytosolic DA pools. AMPT is usually administered systemically. In the present study, however, the effects of locally infused AMPT on the efflux of DA from the nucleus accumbens and dorsal striatum were analyzed, using in vivo brain microdialysis in unanesthetized rats. The administration of AMPT (100 microM, 4 h) into the nucleus accumbens reduced accumbal DA output to 30% of its baseline level. When it was infused into the dorsal striatum, however, it reduced striatal DA output to 60% of its baseline level. At first sight, these data suggest that the amount of DA available from the AMPT-sensitive pool is larger in the nucleus accumbens than in the striatum. However, this cannot be the case, as the decrease in accumbal and striatal DA efflux induced by systemic administration of AMPT (250 mg/kg given intra-peritoneally) was identical. These results show that local infusion of AMPT is a valuable tool for analyzing the role of AMPT-sensitive pools within a particular brain area, but it cannot be used to compare effects across different brain structures because a fixed dose of AMPT differentially affected the nucleus accumbens and the dorsal striatum.