Aberrant amino acid transport in fibroblasts from patients with bipolar disorder

Aberrant tyrosine transport is a repeated finding in fibroblasts from schizophrenic patients. The transport aberration could lead to disturbances in the dopaminergic and noradrenergic neurotransmitter systems. Tyrosine and tryptophan are the precursors of the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin. Disturbed dopaminergic, noradrenergic and serotoninergic systems are implicated as causes of bipolar disorder. Hence, the aim of this study was to explore whether patients with bipolar disorder have an aberrant transport of tyrosine and/or tryptophan. Fibroblast cell lines from patients with bipolar type-1 disorder (n = 10) and healthy controls (n = 10) were included in this study. All patients fulfilled the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria. The transport of amino acids across the cell membranes was measured by the cluster tray method. The kinetic parameters, maximal transport velocity (Vmax) and affinity constant (Km) were determined. A significantly lower Vmax for tyrosine (p = 0.027) was found in patients with bipolar type-1 disorder in comparison to healthy controls. No significant differences in Km for tyrosine and in the kinetic parameters of tryptophan between patients with bipolar type-1 disorder and healthy controls were observed. The decreased tyrosine transport (low Vmax) found in this study may indicate less access of dopamine in the brain, resulting in disturbed dopaminergic and/or noradrenergic neurotransmission, that secondarily could lead to disturbances in other central neurotransmitter systems, such as the serotoninergic system. However, as sample size was small in this study and an age difference between patients and controls existed, the present findings should be considered as pilot data. Further studies with larger sample number are needed to elucidate the transport aberration and the significance of these findings.