Comparative study of two protocols for quantitative image-analysis of serotonin transporter clustering in lymphocytes, a putative biomarker of therapeutic efficacy in major depression

摘要

BackgroundThe pattern of serotonin transporter clustering on the plasma membrane of lymphocytes extracted from human whole blood samples has been identified as a putative biomarker of therapeutic efficacy in major depression. Here we evaluated the possibility of performing a similar analysis using blood smears obtained from rats, and from control human subjects and depression patients. We hypothesized that we could optimize a protocol to make the analysis of serotonin protein clustering in blood smears comparable to the analysis of serotonin protein clustering using isolated lymphocytes.