Young adult male Swiss Webster mice were exposed to 0.45 ppm of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) for 7 hours per day for 4 weeks. The lungs and brains were assayed for serotonin (5-HT) and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) content by high-performance liquid chromatography. Lung 5-HT content for the exposed animals was 13.1% less than that for the control group, but this difference was not statistically significant. Brain 5-HT and 5-HIAA were significantly elevated, +17.3% (P < 0.005) and +47.3% (P 0.001), respectively, and the ratios of 5-HIAA to 5-HT were also higher (P 0.005). The results suggest that further exploration of lung and brain serotonin alterations by air pollutants may offer useful discriminates for the evaluation of air quality.
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