Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Jun 29;10(6):e0131017.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0131017. eCollection 2015.

Reduced Dopamine Transporter Availability and Neurocognitive Deficits in Male Patients with Alcohol Dependence

Che-Hung Yen  1 , Yi-Wei Yeh  2 , Chih-Sung Liang  3 , Pei-Shen Ho  4 , Shin-Chang Kuo  5 , Chang-Chih Huang  6 , Chun-Yen Chen  5 , Mei-Chen Shih  2 , Kuo-Hsing Ma  7 , Giia-Sheun Peng  8 , Ru-Band Lu  9 , San-Yuan Huang  5
Affiliations

Reduced Dopamine Transporter Availability and Neurocognitive Deficits in Male Patients with Alcohol Dependence

Che-Hung Yen et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Dopamine plays an important role in the development of alcohol dependence, cognitive dysfunction, and is regulated via dopamine transporter activity. Although dopamine transporter activity is critically involved in alcohol dependence, studies observing this relationship are limited. Thus the current study examined whether dopamine transporter availability is associated with developing of alcohol dependence and cognitive dysfunction. Brain imaging with 99mTc-TRODAT-1 as a ligand was used to measure dopamine transporter availability among 26 male patients with pure alcohol dependence and 22 age- and sex- matched healthy volunteers. The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) were administered to assess neurocognitive functioning and personality traits, respectively. Compared to healthy controls, patients with alcohol dependence showed a significant reduction in dopamine transporter availability (p < 0.001), as well as diminished performance on the WCST (p < 0.001). Dopamine transporter availability was negatively correlated with both total and perseverative WCST errors among healthy controls, but only patients with alcohol dependence showed a positive correlation between dopamine transporter availability and a harm avoidance personality profile. Thus, reductions in dopamine transporter availability may play a pathophysiological role in the development of pure alcohol dependence, given its association with neurocognitive deficits. Moreover, personality may influence the development of pure alcohol dependence; however, additional clinical subgroups should be examined to confirm this possibility.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. 99mTc-TRODAT-1 with single photon emission computed tomographic images of a control subject (A) in comparison with an age matched alcohol-dependent patient (B) in transverse slices at the level of striatum, and the corresponding MRI for the control subject (C).
Regions of interest shows are for caudate and putamen (A and C), and for occipital lobe which is the reference region (D).
Fig 2
Fig 2. A scatter plot (A) and general data (B) of specific uptake ratio (SUR) of DAT in striatum, caudate and putamen calculated from 99mTc-TRODAT-1 SPECT in alcohol dependent subjects and healthy controls.
Horizontal bars indicates mean value of SUR. (mean ± SD). a p value of Mann-Whitney U test.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Graph showing correlation of striatal specific uptake ratio of [99mTc] TRODAT-1 with perseverative errors and total errors.
Significant association between these parameters existed healthy controls.
Fig 4
Fig 4. Graph showing correlation of striatal specific uptake ratio of [99mTc]TRODAT-1with harm avoidance.
Significant association between harm avoidance and SUR over total caudate(ρ = 0.527, p = 0.06) and total striatum (ρ = 0.475, p = 0.014) existed in pure alcohol-dependent individuals. The coefficient of determination (r 2) is 28.4% for the alcohol dependent group (n = 26) between harm avoidance and total striatum SUR.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Huang SY, Lin WW, Ko HC, Lee JF, Wang TJ, Chou YH, et al. Possible interaction of alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase genes with the dopamine D2 receptor gene in anxiety-depressive alcohol dependence. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2004;28(3):374–84. . - PubMed
    1. Ma H, Zhu G. The dopamine system and alcohol dependence. Shanghai archives of psychiatry. 2014;26(2):61–8. 10.3969/j.issn.1002-0829.2014.02.002 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Torres GE, Gainetdinov RR, Caron MG. Plasma membrane monoamine transporters: structure, regulation and function. Nature reviews Neuroscience. 2003;4(1):13–25. 10.1038/nrn1008 . - DOI - PubMed
    1. Vaughan RA, Foster JD. Mechanisms of dopamine transporter regulation in normal and disease states. Trends in pharmacological sciences. 2013;34(9):489–96. 10.1016/j.tips.2013.07.005 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Gainetdinov RR. Dopamine transporter mutant mice in experimental neuropharmacology. Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's archives of pharmacology. 2008;377(4–6):301–13. 10.1007/s00210-007-0216-0 . - DOI - PubMed

Publication types

Substances

Grants and funding

This work was supported by National Science Council NSC101-2325-B-016-003 (SYH), Tri-Service General Hospital TSGHC101-122 (SYH), TSGHC102-120 (SYH), TSGHC103-133 (SYH); and Medical Affairs Bureau, Ministry of National Defense, Taiwan, DOD100-C09-01 (SYH), DOD102-114 (SYH). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.