thesis
5-Hydroxytryptamine Receptors Mediating Carotid and Systemic Haemodynamic Effects: The Relation to Acute Antimigraine Therapy
- Publication date
- 27 October 1999
- Publisher
- The presence of a vasoconstrictor substance in blood was suspected for 130 years
(Ludwig & Schmidt, 1868) and, 50 years ago, Page and associates at the Cleveland
Clinic (Cleveland, Ohio, USA) succeeded in isolating 'serotonin' from the blood
(Rapport et al., 1948). Within the next 3 years, the chemical structure of serotonin
was deduced (Rapport, 1949) and 5-HT (5-hydroxytryptamine; for other abbreviations
see Section 16.4) synthesised (Hamlin & Fischer, 1951; Speeter et al., 1951).
Independently, during the 1930s and 40s, Erspamer and colleagues (Rome, Italy), who
were interested in characterising the substance imparting characteristic histochemical
properties to the enterochromaffin cells of the gastrointestinal mucosa, extracted a
basic gut-stimulating factor and named it "enteramine" (Erspamer, 1954). The
chemical identity of enteramine with the natural and synthetic serotonin
(Erspamer & Asero, 1952) was soon backed by the similarity of pharmacological
profile (contraction of sheep carotid artery, guinea-pig, mouse and rabbit jejunum, rat
and cat uterus and cat nictitating membrane, triphasic blood pressure response and
antagonism by yohimbine and potentiation by cocaine of the sheep carotid artery
contraction) (Erspamer, 1954; Page, 1954). Thus, the scene was set for the
characterisation of 5-HT receptors.