Muscimol-induced increase in dopamine release and metabolism is not observed in kainic acid-lesioned striatum of conscious rats: an in vivo microdialysis study.

Local application of muscimol through the striatal dialysis membrane caused a significant increase in both dopamine release and dopamine metabolism in the striatum of conscious rats, however, both elevations induced by muscimol were significantly lower in the kainic acid-lesioned striatum when assessed with in vivo brain microdialysis. These findings show that intra-striatal muscimol indirectly stimulates nigrostriatal dopaminergic function by possibly causing an inhibition of striatal gamma-aminobutyric acid neurons.