Review Article

Potential Antidepressant Role of Neurotransmitter CART: Implications for Mental Disorders

Figure 1

CART is highly expressed in the most structures of the limbic system which is known to be the seat of the emotions. This simplified diagram depicts the major limbic circuitry and main pathways that may mediate the antidepressant role of CART. The midbrain ventral tegmental area (VTA) and the connection with the nucleus accumbens (NAc) in the ventral striatum also form the mesolimbic dopamine pathway (square with dotted line). Both CART mRNA and peptide are abundant in the depicted brain regions. In human brain, the highest CART mRNA expression levels were found in hypothalamus and thalamus [86].
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