Detecting serotonin system in rats with myocardial infarction and/or depression after selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor therapy

Objectives: The aim of this study is to explore the effects on serotonergic system of sertraline in the Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats of myocardial infarction (MI), depression, and depression post-MI. Methods: A total of 80 SD rats were randomly allocated into two pretreatment groups, including saline-pretreated group and sertraline-pretreated group. The sertraline-pretreated rats received sertraline and the saline-pretreated rats received saline for the past 4 weeks. Then, the two groups were randomly divided into four subgroups, respectively, including sham, MI, depression, and depression post-MI (MI + depression) subgroup. All animals were then sacrificed after 3 days to observe the effects of sertraline on levels of 5-HT, 5-HT2AR, and SERT in the rat serum, platelet, and brain. Results: As compared with saline treatment group, serum 5-HT decreased significantly in sham subgroup and increase significantly in MI, depression, and MI-depression subgroups, platelet 5-HT increased significantly, brain 5-HT decreased significantly in the four subgroups after sertraline treatment (all P