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Age-related changes in the glutamate metabolism of cerebral cortical slices from rats

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Abstract

The glutamate metabolism in cerebral cortical slices from young (12 weeks) and aged (100 weeks) rats was studied. A highly significant reduction of low affinity glutamate uptake and its metabolism in the aged rats by 14.5% of the amount of the young rats was observed (Pº0.001). When the ratio of the radioactivity of respective metabolite divided by the sum total radioactivity of overall glutamate metabolites was compared, the incorporation to aspartate was significantly small (P<0.01), while that of the CO2 liberated and the GABA synthesized were increased (P<0.05). These results support the hypothesis that in cerebral cortical slices from aged rats the transamination of glutamate is suppressed and its decarboxylation is enhanced despite markedly reduced low affinity glutamate uptake into the cerebral cortex. The difference could be explained by the fact that cerebral cortical slices from aged rats are more vulnerable to anoxia than those from young rats when exposed during slice preparation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The First Department of Internal Medicine, Sapporo Medical College, South 1 West 16, 060, Sapporo, Japan

    Hiroyuki Matsumoto, Susumu Kikuchi & Masaharu Ito

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  1. Hiroyuki Matsumoto
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  2. Susumu Kikuchi
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  3. Masaharu Ito
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Matsumoto, H., Kikuchi, S. & Ito, M. Age-related changes in the glutamate metabolism of cerebral cortical slices from rats. Neurochem Res 7, 679–685 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00965521

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