Rapid Postmortem Increase in Extracellular Dopamine in the Rat Brain as Assessed by Brain Microdialysis
Vulto, Arnold G. ; Sharp, Trevor ; Ungerstedt, Urban ; Versteeg, Dirk H. G.
Oxford, UK : Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Published 1988
Oxford, UK : Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Published 1988
| ISSN: |
1471-4159
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| Source: |
Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
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| Topics: |
Medicine
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| Notes: |
Abstract: Extracellular dopamine (DA) and its metabolites 3,4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) and homovanil-lic acid (HVA) in rat nucleus accumbens were determined before and shortly following death using microdialysis. A maximal 400-fold increase in the output of DA was observed within the first 5 min of death. DA output remained elevated over the following hour at a level of approximately 70-fold above pre-death values. In contrast to that of DA, DOPAC and HVA output gradually declined. Before death the extracellular DOPAC/DA ratio was about 250; after death this ratio dropped to 0.44 at 5 min. These observations may have important implications for experiments measuring the output of (endogenous) DA and its metabolites from brain tissue in vitro: autoregulation of, e.g., transmitter release and synthesis in vitro may be seriously disrupted by the observed depletion of transmitter storage granules.
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| Type of Medium: |
Electronic Resource
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| URL: |