Tianeptine facilitates spreading depression in well-nourished and early-malnourished adult rats.

Nutritional status during development can modify the brain's electrophysiological properties and its response to drugs that reduce the serotonin availability in the synaptic cleft. Here we used cortical spreading depression (CSD) in the rat as a neurophysiological parameter to investigate the interaction between nutritional status and treatment with tianeptine, a serotonin uptake enhancer. From postnatal day 2 to 24, well-nourished and early-malnourished rat pups were s.c. injected with tianeptine (5 or 10mg/kg; 10 ml/kg) or equivalent volume of saline solution (control group). When the animals were 25-30 days old, CSD was recorded on the brain cortical surface. In the well-nourished rats, but not in the malnourished group, systemic tianeptine dose-dependently increased the CSD propagation velocity, with 10mg/kg producing a significant (P<0.05) effect. An experiment in adult rats showed that cortical topical application of tianeptine solutions (5mg/ml, 10mg/ml, and 20mg/ml) increased the CSD propagation in both the well-nourished and early-malnourished conditions. In well-nourished animals, 0.5mg/ml topical tianeptine did not affect CSD propagation, and 2mg/ml produced a small, but significant CSD acceleration. Our results indicate a facilitating action of tianeptine on CSD propagation, probably via tianeptine's pharmacological action on the serotonin system. These findings support previous data suggesting an antagonistic role of the serotoninergic system on CSD.