%0 Journal Article
%T Cigarette smoking and tryptophan hydroxylase 2 mRNA in the dorsal raphe nucleus in suicides
%J Archives of suicide research
%D 2016
%A Bach, Helene
%A Arango, Victoria
%A Kassir, Suham A.
%A Dwork, Andrew J.
%A Mann, J. John
%A Underwood, Mark D.
%V 20
%N 3
%P 451-462
%X Cigarette smoking is associated with suicide and mood disorders and stimulates serotonin release. Tryptophan hydroxylase (TPH2) synthesizes serotonin and is over-expressed in suicides. We determined whether smoking is associated with TPH2 mRNA in suicides and controls. TPH2 mRNA was measured postmortem in the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) of controls (N = 26, 17 nonsmokers and nine smokers) and suicides (N = 23, 5 nonsmokers and 18 smokers). Psychiatric history was obtained by psychological autopsy. TPH2 mRNA was greater in suicide nonsmokers than suicide smokers, control smokers and control nonsmokers (p = 0.006). There was more TPH2 mRNA throughout the DRN. Smoking interferes with the TPH2 mRNA increase observed in suicide nonsmokers. The absence of altered TPH2 expression in non-suicide smokers suggests no pharmacological effect of smoking.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>
%G en
%I Informa - Taylor and Francis Group
%@ 1381-1118
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13811118.2015.1048398