Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) modulates dopaminergic neurotransmission. It takes part in neurologic and psychiatric diseases involving monoamine neurotransmitters. Earlier results show that DHEA (120-min treatment) reduced striatal dopamine (DA) turnover in rats, suggesting a reduced DA release. Some investigations report that DHEA increases DA release but inhibits motor activity, which seems contradictory. This research examines the effect of DHEA on striatal DA release, its metabolism and motor activity. Male Wistar rats were implanted in the striatum with a cannula for in vivo microdialysis. DHEA was administered (120 mg/kg) and dialysates were collected for 280 min. A depolarizing stimulus was applied at 120 min. Samples were analyzed by HPLC-ED to determine the concentration of DA and its metabolites. The effect of DHEA on motor activity was also evaluated during 120 min. Extracellular DA concentration was greater in treated animals both before and after depolarization. In contrast, DHEA reduced the areas below the curves for DA metabolites and DA/metabolite ratios. DHEA also reduced motor activity, remarkably in the first 20 min after treatment. In summary, DHEA yielded a stimulatory effect on striatal DA release that was not reflected in neither DA metabolism nor motor activity. Thus, DHEA resembles the effect of typical antipsychotics, increasing DA release but reducing behavioral activation.

脱氢表雄酮（DHEA）调节多巴胺能神经传递。它参与涉及单胺神经递质的神经系统疾病和精神疾病。较早的结果表明，DHEA（120分钟处理）可降低大鼠纹状体多巴胺（DA）的代谢，表明DA释放减少。一些研究报告说，DHEA增加了DA的释放，但抑制了运动活动，这似乎是矛盾的。这项研究检查了脱氢表雄酮对纹状体DA释放，其代谢和运动活性的影响。将雄性Wistar大鼠用套管植入纹状体进行体内微透析。给予DHEA（120 mg / kg），并收集透析液280分钟。在120分钟时施加去极化刺激。通过HPLC-ED分析样品以确定DA及其代谢产物的浓度。还在120分钟内评估了DHEA对运动活动的影响。去极化之前和之后，治疗动物的细胞外DA浓度更高。相反，DHEA减少了DA代谢物和DA /代谢物比率曲线下方的面积。DHEA也显着降低了运动能力，在治疗后的最初20分钟内。总之，DHEA对纹状体DA的释放有刺激作用，这既没有反映在DA代谢中也没有反映在运动活动中。因此，脱氢表雄酮类似于典型的抗精神病药，增加DA的释放，但减少行为的激活。