title: Positron emission tomography shows high specific uptake of racemic carbon-11 labelled norepinephrine in the primate heart.
abstract: (-)-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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Farde
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Halldin
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Någren
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Suhara
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Karlsson
authors.forename: K O
authors.initials: KO
authors.lastname: Schoeps
authors.forename: C G
authors.initials: CG
authors.lastname: Swahn
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bone
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D002250:Carbon Radioisotopes; D003891:Desipramine; D009638:Norepinephrine