Dear Jo
Thank you for your kind reply. It was very helpful for me to understand melatoni o-
nin. The story becomes more amusing. If you don't mind I want to ask some more
questions.
1. You mentioned taking melatonin at certain times of day can either phase-
advance or phase-delay one's own melatonin production. Did you mean that if one
takes melatonin at noon, then endogenous production of melatonin will be started
next day(noon)? If so, taking melatonin to treat jet lag may result in long-
term sleep disturbance. Would you explain about this in more detail?
2. I have heart that melatonin is synthesized from serotonin. Is there any
known regulatory step or element in the synthesis of melatonin.
3. You explained that melatonin level was decreased in many disease conditions
including many neuro-psychiatric disease. It is very interesting to me because
I am major in neuroscience. I want to know more about the exact relationship
between decreased melatonin and the disease. However the book you recommended
is not available in Korea. Do you have any other reference for it?
4. Would you let me know more about melatonin receptor? Is it cloned? How many
subtypes? Which signal transduction pathway is linked to receptor?
Best regards,
Seong-Hun Kim
Dept. of Pharmacol/.
Coll. of Medicine
Seoul National Univ.
Korea
