Positron emission tomography shows high specific uptake of racemic carbon-11 labelled norepinephrine in the primate heart.
(-)-Norepinephrine is the predominant neurotransmitter of the sympathetic innervation of the heart. Racemic norepinephrine was labelled with carbon-11 and injected i.v. into Cynomolgus monkeys. Five minutes after injection there was a more than tenfold higher radioactivity in the heart than in adjacent tissue. Pretreatment with the norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor desipramine reduced the uptake by more than 80%. The high specific uptake of racemic [11C]norepinephrine indicates that enantiomerically pure (-)-[11C]norepinephrine has promising potential for detailed mapping of the sympathetic innervation of the human myocardium.
Farde
L
L
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Halldin
C
C
Någren
K
K
Suhara
T
T
Karlsson
P
P
Schoeps
K O
KO
Swahn
C G
CG
Bone
D
D
D000818:Animals; D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D003891:Desipramine / Q000494:pharmacology; D006321:Heart / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000294:innervation; D008252:Macaca fascicularis; D008297:Male; D009638:Norepinephrine; D011292:Premedication; D014055:Tomography, Emission-Computed
D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D003891:Desipramine; D009638:Norepinephrine