Striatal dopamine transporter availability decreases throughout the day in healthy volunteers

Authors

• CE Wiers
• E Shokri-Kojori
• C Wong
• D Tomasi
• GJ Wang
• N Volkow

Abstract

The Dopamine Transporter (DAT) has shown circadian fluctuations in animals, which have been associated with differences in dopamine release. Here we investigated whether DAT availability was associated with the injection time of [11]Cocaine PET scans in healthy human volunteers. Based on preclinical findings that showed lower DAT in the afternoon than in the morning (Ferris et al., PNAS 2014) we hypothesized that DAT availability would decrease with [11]Cocaine injection time. A total of 130 healthy controls (15 females) were imaged with [11]Cocaine and PET to measure DAT. Mean injection time was 11.17 am±.93SD, ranging from 9.05 am–14.12 pm. Injection time was not associated with age, BMI or gender (p>.05). For striatal regions of interest (ROIs), [11]Cocaine injection time correlated negatively with Bmax/Kd in putamen (r=-.21, p

Scientific Focus Area: Neuroscience

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