Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 7 May 1971:
Vol. 172. no. 3983, pp. 587 - 589
DOI: 10.1126/science.172.3983.587
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Norepinephrine Pools in Rat Brain: Differences in Turnover Rates and Pathways of Metabolism

Joseph J. Schildkraut 1, Paul R. Draskoczy 2, and Pallas Sun Lo 2

1 Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, and Neuropsychopharmacolog Laboratory, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Boston 02115
2 Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, and Neuropsychopharmacology Laboratory, Massachusetts Mental Health Center, Boston 02115

The rate of disappearance of intracisternally administered [3H]norepinephrine from rat brain gradually declines as a multiphasic exponential function of time. Conversion to [3H]normetanephrine accounts for a larger fraction of the [3H]norepinephrine released in the brain shortly after its intracisternal injection than that released at later times. Pools of norepinephrine in the brain thus appear to differ in their turnover rates and pathways of metabolism. The pool of norepinephrine with a rapid rate of turnover and an appreciable conversion to normetanephrine, identified by the techniques reported here, may correspond to a pool of newly synthesized norepinephrine in the brain.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Receptor Sensitivity and the Mechanism of Action of Antidepressant Treatment: Implications for the Etiology and Therapy of Depression.
D. S. Charney, D. B. Menkes, and G. R. Heninger (1981)
Arch Gen Psychiatry 38, 1160-1180
   Abstract »    PDF »
Medical therapies for mood disorders alter the blood-brain barrier.
S. Preskorn, G. Irwin, S Simpson, D Friesen, J Rinne, and G Jerkovich (1981)
Science 213, 469-471
   Abstract »    PDF »
Effects of Electroconvulsive Seizures on Amine Metabolism in the Rat Brain.
M. H. Ebert, R. J. Baldessarini, J. F. Lipinski, and K. Berv (1973)
Arch Gen Psychiatry 29, 397-401
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)