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Immune responses

Shuttling serotonin: not just in our heads

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 5, page 904 (2005)Cite this article

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A role for serotonin in the immune response has previously been reported: serotonin has been shown to be a mediator that is released by mast cells and platelets in response to injury or pro-inflammatory signals. In this study, the authors show that, although DCs cannot themselves synthesize serotonin, they express the serotonin transporter SERT (also known as SLC6A4). Cell-surface expression of SERT by DCs was increased following activation and maturation, and this enabled the cells to take up serotonin from their microenvironment. Presumably, mature DCs could acquire serotonin from platelets or mast cells at inflammatory sites, but the authors show that activated T cells can synthesize serotonin for uptake by mature DCs.

Serotonin taken up by activated DCs was stored in vesicular compartments and not degraded by the serotonin catabolic enzymes monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) and MAOB, owing to downregulation of expression of these enzymes after DC activation. By loading DCs with radiolabelled serotonin, the authors next showed that stored serotonin is rapidly released, through exocytosis, in the presence of extracellular ATP, which induces the mobilization of intracellular calcium as occurs in DCs on interaction with T cells.

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ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER

  1. O'Connell, P. J. et al. A novel form of immune signaling revealed by transmission of the inflammatory mediator serotonin between dendritic cells and T cells. Blood 13 Oct 2005 (doi:10.1182/blood-2005-07-2903)

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Authors
  1. Lucy Bird
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Bird, L. Shuttling serotonin: not just in our heads. Nat Rev Immunol 5, 904 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nri1757

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nri1757

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