Biogenic amines in carotid body of adult and infant rats--a gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric assay.

A gas chromatographic-mass spectrometric method was used for the determination of biogenic amines in carotid body of adult and 10 days old rats. The method is ideally suited for this measurement since only small amounts of tissue were available (dry weight carotid body: adult 8.3 mug; infant 5.6 mug). In adult carotid body large amounts of dopamine (1 950 pmol/mg protein) and norepinephrine (1 140 pmol/mg protein) were found together with a comparatively small concentration of serotonin (505 pmol/mg protein). The carotid bodies of infant rats contained 1 065 pmol dopamine/mg protein and 410 pmol norepinephrine/mg protein. Epinephrine could not be detected. Surgical sympathetic denervation and chemical sympathectomy (6-hydroxydopamine) of adult carotid bodies did not significantly change the catecholamine content as compared to the controls. Reserpine depleted the catecholamines dosedependently. Administration of L-Dopa and pargyline (a monoamineoxidaseinhibitor) drastically increased the concentration of catecholamines. Treatment with a dopamine-beta-hydroxlase-inhibitor resulted in a decreased amount of norepinephrine without a simultaneous increase of dopamine. This may indicate that certain storage sites in this tissue may store dopamine while in other sites dopamine is a precursor of norepinephrine. Probably most of the dopamine and norepinephrine are stored in different cells.