
Joao Duarte
Principal investigator

Direct in vivo measurement of glycine and the neurochemical profile in the rat medulla oblongata
Author
Summary, in English
The medulla oblongata (MO) contains a high density of glycinergic synapses and a particularly high concentration of glycine. The aims of this study were to measure directly in vivo the neurochemical profile, including glycine, in MO using a spin-echo-based (1)H MRS sequence at TE = 2.8 ms and to compare it with three other brain regions (cortex, striatum and hippocampus) in the rat. Glycine was quantified in MO at TE = 2.8 ms with a Cramér-Rao lower bound (CRLB) of approximately 5%. As a result of the relatively low level of glycine in the other three regions, the measurement of glycine was performed at TE = 20 ms, which provides a favorable J-modulation of overlapping myo-inositol resonance. The other 14 metabolites composing the neurochemical profile were quantified in vivo in MO with CRLBs below 25%. Absolute concentrations of metabolites in MO, such as glutamate, glutamine, γ-aminobutyrate, taurine and glycine, were in the range of previous in vitro quantifications in tissue extracts. Compared with the other regions, MO had a three-fold higher glycine concentration, and was characterised by reduced (p < 0.001) concentrations of glutamate (-50 ± 4%), glutamine (-54 ± 3%) and taurine (-78 ± 3%). This study suggests that the functional specialisation of distinct brain regions is reflected in the neurochemical profile.
Publishing year
2010-11
Language
English
Pages
102-1097
Publication/Series
NMR in Biomedicine
Volume
23
Issue
9
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
John Wiley & Sons Inc.
Keywords
- Animals
- Cerebral Cortex
- Corpus Striatum
- Glycine
- Hippocampus
- Humans
- Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
- Medulla Oblongata
- Rats
- Rats, Sprague-Dawley
- Journal Article
- Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0952-3480