[Concentration of endogenous agmatine in normal and injured spinal cord: experiment with rats].
OBJECTIVE
To detect the concentration of endogenous agmatine in normal and injured rats' spinal cord.


METHODS
Forty-two SD rats were randomized to sham-operation group and 1 hour, 4 hours, 8 hours, 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours after operation groups. The modified Allen's model of spinal cord injury was established. The endogenous agmatine was detected both in normal and injured rats' spinal cord by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection and OPA derivatization.


RESULTS
The endogenous agmatine level in naive rats' spinal cord were (0.643 +/- 0.111) microg/g wet weight. After spinal cord injury, the concentration had a transient drop followed by significantly increase, and then decreased by degrees.


CONCLUSIONS
Up to now, little has been known about the endogenous agmatine levels in mammalian tissues. The results reported by different authors varied up to hundred times. According to our results and other articles, the endogenous agmatine levels in mammals' central nervous system arranged from 0.2 microg/g to 1.1 microg/g wet weight. Although there was a significant increase after spinal cord injury, the peak concentration was extremely lower than what it needed to take its neuroprotective effect in vitro.
Song
Dian-Wen
DW
Department of Orthopedics, Changzheng Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200003, China.
Xing
Wang-Xing
WX
Jia
Lian-Shun
LS
D000376:Agmatine / Q000032:analysis*; D000818:Animals; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase / Q000378:metabolism; D011897:Random Allocation; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000378:metabolism*; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000378:metabolism*
D000376:Agmatine; D019001:Nitric Oxide Synthase