Monitoring Extracellular Monoamines with In Vivo Microdialysis in Awake Rats: A Practical Approach

The microdialysis technique for the measurement of brain extracellular levels of monoamines has become very popular over the last 2–3 decades, particularly in laboratories involved in neuropharmacology studies. Nevertheless, microdialysis of monoamines is a challenging technique for several reasons and to get reliable results it is necessary to develop sufficient skill and be ready to solve technical and analytical problems that may occur. This chapter is intended to help obtain reliable and reproducible results by describing in detail practical aspects of probe construction and implantation into the rat brain and measurement of noradrenaline, dopamine, and serotonin with HPLC coupled to electrochemical detection, set up, optimized, and validated in this author’s laboratory.