The effect of perinatal anoxia on amino acid metabolism in the developing brain. Part I: The effect of experimental anoxia on the free amino acid patterns in the brain of neonatal rats.
The effect of perinatal anoxia on the subsequent amino acid pattern in the brain during a period of 2 wks after birth was investigated using neonatal rats. Sixty-nine neonatal albino rats of the Wistar strain were divided into 3 groups: the 1st control group (n = 36), the 2nd anoxic group (n = 30) and the 3rd anoxic-ischemic group (n = 3). In the 1st and 2nd groups, 6 rats out of each group were sacrificed on the each of the following days respectively, the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 10th and 15th days of life for amino acid assays of brain. In the 3rd group, 3 rats were sacrificed 2 days after ligation of the carotid artery on one side, and free amino acid levels in both cerebral hemispheres were separately measured. In the controls, the levels of GABA, Asp and Glu in the brain increased, those of Tau and Gly decreased and those of PE, Thr, Ser, Gln, Ala and Leu did not change during the experimental period. The total free amino acid level in the brain of the controls remained almost completely unchanged during this period. After anoxic exposure the levels of GABA, Tau, PE, Asp, Thr, Glu, Gln and Ala, and the total free amino acid level in the brain decreased until the 7th day of life and thereafter rapidly increased. The Gly level continuously decreased and the Ser and Leu levels did not change during the experiment. The GABA and Gly levels after anoxia decreased and were still low on the 15th day of life.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
D000410:Alanine Transaminase / Q000378:metabolism; D000596:Amino Acids / Q000032:analysis*; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn / Q000502:physiology*; D001219:Aspartate Aminotransferases / Q000378:metabolism; D001921:Brain / Q000201:enzymology; D001923:Brain Chemistry; D002534:Hypoxia, Brain / Q000201:enzymology / Q000378:metabolism*; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains
D000596:Amino Acids; D001219:Aspartate Aminotransferases; D000410:Alanine Transaminase