Postmortem monoamine oxidase enzyme kinetics in the frontal cortex of suicide victims and controls.

Serotonin, a preferred monoamine oxidase (MAO) A substrate may be deficient centrally in suicide victims. In postmortem samples of frontal cortex from suicide victims we demonstrated receptor changes in the serotonergic system supportive of this hypothesis. These changes were not accompanied in this series of brain samples by alterations in either MAO A or B enzyme kinetics. Thus brain MAO A is not a useful indicator of altered serotonergic function in suicide victims. We did confirm an age-related increase in cortical MAO B but not MAO A enzyme concentrations in both controls and suicide victims.