Mapping receptors in the human brain

Abstract

Autoradiographic techniques are being increasingly used to localize receptor binding sites at the microscopic level. These techniques have recently been applied to the study of neurotransmitter receptors in human postmortem material. Receptors in these tissues appear to be resistant to postmortem changes and their study is amenable to autoradiographic procedures. Receptors for many amine, amino acid and peptide neurotransmitters, as well as other related binding sites, have been visualized and mapped in human brain. In some cases the pharmacological characteristics, and/or the anatomical distribution of these sites are different from those found in rat brain. Changes in the densities of some neurotransmitter receptors have been found in the brains of patients that had suffered from a number of neurological diseases, and in patients with localized lesions or as a consequence of drug treatment. These studies, which offer an invaluable counterpart to the rapidly developing non-invasive techniques of brain imaging, are already providing important insights into human brain receptor mechanisms.