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Arthritis Research & Therapy 2006, 8:R99doi:10.1186/ar1982

 

Research article

 

Alteration of serotonin transporter density and activity in fibromyalgia

 

Laura Bazzichi (1) , Gino Giannaccini (2) , Laura Betti (2) , Giovanni Mascia (2) , Laura Fabbrini (2) , Paola Italian (2) , Francesca De Feo (2) , Tiziana Giuliano (1) , Camillo Giacomelli (2) , Alessandra Rossi (2) , Antonio Lucacchini (2) and Stefano Bombardieri (1)

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Rheumatology, University of Pisa, Via Roma 67 - 56126 PISA Italy
  2. Department of Psychiatry, Neurobiology, Pharmacology and Biotechnology, University of Pisa, Via Bonanno 6, 56126, Pisa, Italy

 

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at:
http://arthritis-research.com/content/8/4/R99

 

Published : 21 June 2006

 

© 2006 Bazzichi et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

 

Abstract

 

The aim of the study was to evaluate the kinetic parameters of a specific serotonin transporter (SERT) and serotonin uptake in a mentally healthy subset of patients with fibromyalgia. Platelets were obtained from 40 patients and 38 healthy controls. SERT expression and functionality were evaluated through the measurement of [3H]paroxetine binding and the [3H]serotonin uptake itself.

The values of maximal membrane binding capacity (Bmax) were statistically lower in the patients than in the healthy volunteers, whereas the dissociation constant (Kd) did not show any statistically significant variations.

Moreover, a decrease in the maximal uptake rate of SERT (Vmax) was demonstrated in the platelets of patients, whereas the Michaelis constant (Km) did not show any statistically significant variations.

Symptom severity score (tiredness, tender points index and Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire) were negatively correlated with Bmax and with Vmax, and positively correlated with Km. A change in SERT seems to occur in fibromyalgic patients, and it seems to be related to the severity of fibromyalgic symptoms.

 

Full Text article at : http://arthritis-research.com/content/8/4/R99

 

Also available as PDF document

 

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