Evidence that melatonin retention by the neonatal rat is greatly increased as compared to the adult: a novel biochemical mechanism.
Melatonin, an anti-gonadotropic pineal hormone, is known to have a very short half-life in the adult animal. The objective of the present study was to determine whether the fate of melatonin in the neonate is different from that of the adult rat. Groups of 5-day-old rats were injected intraperitoneally with [3H]melatonin. The animals were killed at 10, 60 and 90 min intervals following the injections and the livers and brains immediately removed and homogenized. A high pressure liquid chromatographic analysis of the liver and brain extracts revealed that in sharp contrast to the rapid disappearance of melatonin in the adult, melatonin disappearance in the neonate is greatly decreased.
D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism*; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D005260:Female; D008099:Liver / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D008550:Melatonin / Q000378:metabolism*; D008657:Metabolic Clearance Rate; D051381:Rats
D008550:Melatonin