Effects of antidepressants and depressive disorders on mitochondrial functions

Mood disorders are serious diseases. Nevertheless, their pathophysiology is not sufficiently clarified. Biological markers that would facilitate the diagnosis or successful prediction of pharmacotherapy are still being sought. The aim of the study was to find out whether mitochondrial functions are affected by antidepressants, mood stabilizers and depression. Our research is based on recent hypotheses of mood disorders, the advanced monoamine hypothesis, the neurotrophic hypothesis, and the mitochondrial dysfunction hypothesis. We assume that impaired function of mitochondria leads to neuronal damage and can be related to the origin of mood disorders. Effects of antidepressants and mood stabilizers on mitochondrial functions can be related to their therapeutic or side effects. In vitro effects of pharmacologically different antidepressants and mood stabilizers on the activities of mitochondrial enzymes were measured in mitochondria isolated from pig brains (in vitro model). Activity of monoamine oxidase (MAO) isoforms was determined radiochemically, activities of other mitochondrial enzymes were measured spectrophotometrically. Overall activity of the system of oxidative phosphorylation was measured electrochemically using high- resolution respirometry. Methods were modified to measure the same..