title: Abnormal levels of seven amino neurotransmitters in depressed rat brain and determination by HPLC-FLD.
abstract: The determination of amino acids with actions like neurotransmitters or modulators has been increasingly important for diagnosis in many neuropsychiatric diseases. A rapid and simple high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection method was developed for simultaneous determination of seven amino acids: aspartate (Asp), glutamate (Glu), serine (Ser), glutamine (Gln), glycine (Gly), taurine (Tau) and γ-aminobutyric` acid (GABA). Homoserine was used as an internal standard. The analysis was performed on a BDS column with methanol and 50 mm sodium acetate solution (pH 6.5) using a simple gradient elution. Several parameters of the developed method were validated including linearity, accuracy, precision, extraction recovery and stability, which were within the acceptable range. The method was successfully applied to determination of real samples: hippocampus and cortex in depressed rats exposed to chronically unpredictable stress in order to study if there existed differences in the seven amino acids levels between depressed rats and control. The results showed that Asp, Gly, Tau and GABA significantly decreased with increasing Gln in the hippocampus of depressed rats, compared with that of the control group, among which obviously lower level of Asp and higher level of Gln in cortex were observed. The analytical method and the results could be useful for clinical diagnosis and further insight into pathophysiological mechanism of depression.
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Ting
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0351-9433
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Hong-Mei
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Qiu
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Qi-Xin
authors.initials: QX
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Yan
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Hai-Yan
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
authors.forename: Xin-Hui
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D000596:Amino Acids / Q000032:analysis*; D000818:Animals; D001923:Brain Chemistry; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D003863:Depression / Q000473:pathology*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology*; D057230:Limit of Detection; D008297:Male; D018377:Neurotransmitter Agents / Q000032:analysis*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D018377:Neurotransmitter Agents
keywords: HPLC-FLD; amino acid neurotransmitters; chronically unpredicted stress; cortex; depressed rat; hippocampus