Blood-brain barrier melatonin

Melatonin (0.1-4 mM) in a dose-response manner reduced kainate (11.7 mM)-induced lipid peroxidation in homogenates of the cerebellum, hippocampus, hypothalamus and striatum of both Wistar and Sprague-Dawley rats (Melchiorri et al. 1995). In vivo melatonin crosses the blood brain barrier (Reiter 1991), is rapidly taken up by the brain (Menendez-Pelaez et al. 1993), and may be retained in at least two brain regions hippocampal neurones and specific nuclei in the hypothalamus such as the suprachiasmatic nuclei (Marani and Rietveld 1987, Naranjo-Rodriguez et al. 1991). 

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