Dissociation between lactate accumulation and acidosis in middle cerebral artery-occluded rats assessed by P and H NMR metabolic images under A 2-T magnetic field

The relationships among tissue edema, lactate accumulation, and intracellular pH in middle cerebral artery (MCA)-occluded rats were investigated with multiecho ¹H magnetic resonance imaging and spatially resolved metabolic images constructed by ¹H and ³¹P nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) chemical shift imaging (CSI). For the effective and sensitive detection of NMR signals from the brain, outer volume suppression (OVS), reduced k-space sampling and proton irradiation were incorporated into the CSI sequences. The consecutive three measurements of calculated T₂ image, lactate image, and pH image which were required for 3.75 h were repeated for four cycles of 1–16 h after MCA occlusion. Tissue edema and lactate accumulation in the infarcted region were gradually and consistently increased during the 15-h observation period. In contrast, severe acidosis was already detected on the first pH image (2–4.7 h after MCA occlusion); thereafter, the degree of acidosis became milder and showed no further progression. The dissociation between the time courses of the lactate accumulation and pH decrease was clearly demonstrated by the NMR metabolic images. Acid-base balance in cerebral infarction might be affected not only by lactate production but also by complicated interactions with tissue edema and some other factors.     

Iodine concentration in different human brain parts

Iodine is one of the most important essential elements as demonstrated by the fact that its deficiency can cause goitre. Nevertheless, quantitative data on its concentration in biological materials, especially in the human brain, are scarce. There is therefore a demand for accurate and reliable information on iodine in these types of samples. The purpose of the present work was to determine the concentration of total iodine in some control human brain parts by rapid radiochemical neutron activation analysis. Our second goal was to determine I distribution between lipid fraction and in brain tissue without lipid by applying two types of solvent extraction methods. The results were checked by the analysis of biological standard reference materials with certified or literature values for iodine and good agreement was found.     

On the nature of the BOLD fMRI contrast mechanism

Since its development about 15 years ago, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has become the leading research tool for mapping brain activity. The technique works by detecting the levels of oxygen in the blood, point by point, throughout the brain. In other words, it relies on a surrogate signal, resulting from changes in oxygenation, blood volume and flow, and does not directly measure neural activity. Although a relationship between changes in brain activity and blood flow has long been speculated, indirectly examined and suggested and surely anticipated and expected, the neural basis of the fMRI signal was only recently demonstrated directly in experiments using combined imaging and intracortical recordings. In the present paper, we discuss the results obtained from such combined experiments. We also discuss our current knowledge of the extracellularly measured signals of the neural processes that they represent and of the structural and functional neurovascular coupling, which links such processes with the hemodynamic changes that offer the surrogate signal that we use to map brain activity. We conclude by considering applications of invasive MRI, including injections of paramagnetic tracers for the study of connectivity in the living animal and simultaneous imaging and electrical microstimulation.     

Zur quantitativen Auswertung von Mikro-Autoradiogrammen mit dem Densitron

Die vorliegende Arbeit beschāftigt sich mit der Answertung von Autoradiogrammen inhomogen markierter mikroskopischer Strukturen am Densitron. Dazu fertigten wir von herkömmlichen Stripping-Filmen (z. B. ORW O K 106) Mikro-Stufengraukeile an und bestimmten die Schwärzung S_ijeder Stufe photometrisch. Graukeile geeigneten Schwärzungsumfangs dienten dann zur Einstellung der Farbtrigger des Densitrons, so daß sich die bei dieser Einstellung gemessenen Farbflächen F_i des jeweiligen Objektes bestimmten Schwärzungswerten zuordnen ließen.

Als Modellobjekte verwendelen wir erstens Autoradiogramme von ³H-Thymidin-markierten Tumorzellen. Vergleichsmessungen an unterschiedlich lange exponierten, sonst aber identischen Präparaten ergaben eine gute Reproduzierbarkeit der Meßergebnisse. Als zweites Testobjekt dienlen Autoradiogramme einer nur schwach markierten Struktur im Gehirn von Fröschen. Die an diesem Grenzfall erhaltenen Ergebnisse werden mit Meßwerten verglichen, die vom gleichen Objekt mittels Scanning-Photometrie an einem. Mikroskop-Photometer SMP 01 (OPTON, Oberkoches, BRD) gewonnen wurden.     

The Chemistry of Cyborgs—Interfacing Technical Devices with Organisms

The term “cyborg” refers to a cybernetic organism, which characterizes the chimera of a living organism and a machine. Owing to the widespread application of intracorporeal medical devices, cyborgs are no longer exclusively a subject of science fiction novels, but technically they already exist in our society. In this review, we briefly summarize the development of modern prosthetics and the evolution of brain–machine interfaces, and discuss the latest technical developments of implantable devices, in particular, biocompatible integrated electronics and microfluidics used for communication and control of living organisms. Recent examples of animal cyborgs and their relevance to fundamental and applied biomedical research and bioethics in this novel and exciting field at the crossroads of chemistry, biomedicine, and the engineering sciences are presented.     

The Effect of Blood Contained in the Samples on the Metabolomic Profile of Mouse Brain Tissue: A Study by NMR Spectroscopy

(1) Recently, metabolic profiling of the tissue in the native state or extracts of its metabolites has become increasingly important in the field of metabolomics. An important factor, in this case, is the presence of blood in a tissue sample, which can potentially lead to a change in the concentration of tissue metabolites and, as a result, distortion of experimental data and their interpretation. (2) In this paper, the metabolomic profiling based on NMR spectroscopy was performed to determine the effect of blood contained in the studied samples of brain tissue on their metabolomic profile. We used 13 male laboratory CD-1^® IGS mice for this study. The animals were divided into two groups. The first group of animals (n = 7) was subjected to the perfusion procedure, and the second group of animals (n = 6) was not perfused. The brain tissues of the animals were homogenized, and the metabolite fraction was extracted with a water/methanol/chloroform solution. Samples were studied by high-frequency ¹H-NMR spectroscopy with subsequent statistical data analysis. The group comparison was performed with the use of the Student’s test. We identified 36 metabolites in the brain tissue with the use of NMR spectroscopy. (3) For the major set of studied metabolites, no significant differences were found in the brain tissue metabolite concentrations in the native state and after the blood removal procedure. (4) Thus, it was shown that the presence of blood does not have a significant effect on the metabolomic profile of the brain in animals without pathologies.     

荧光法测定SD大白鼠不同脑区的单胺类神经递质

以荧光光谱法定量地研究了不同浓度的司考林作用下,鼠脑组织中去甲肾上腺素、多巴胺和5-羟色胺的定量变化,从而表达了中枢神经递质的变化规律.     

EFFECT OF SIMULATED WEIGHTLESSNESS ON THE RESPONSE CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMAN BRAIN

In order to systematically investigate the effects of simulated weightlessness on thefunction state of human brain, 15° head-down tilt (HDT) was used to simulate weightless-ness, and the response changes of event-related EEG power spectra, medium-frequencysynchronous potentials and slow-waves were examined in the present study. It was foundthat HDT had characteristic effects on the above EEG responses, suggesting that the ef-fects mainly occurred in the brain's regulatory system, therefore, resulting in changes ofthe brain function state.     

大鼠服用朱砂后脑内氨基酸类递质含量的变化

研究了朱砂对大鼠脑组织中氨基酸类神经递质含量的影响.将32只Wistar大鼠随机分为低、中、高剂量组和对照组,朱砂灌胃给药14天后,采用高效液相色谱法测定大鼠脑组织中谷氨酸(Glu)、天门冬氨酸(Asp)、甘氨酸(Gly)、γ-氨基丁酸(GABA)和牛磺酸(Tau)的含量,并计算兴奋毒性指数(EI)的变化.与对照组相比较,脑组织中氨基酸类神经递质含量均呈下降趋势,其中Asp和Gly的中、高剂量组差异有统计学意义(P0.05),Tau和GABA的高剂量组有统计学差异(P0.05),Glu和EI所有剂量组均有统计学差异(P0.05).朱砂对氨基酸类神经递质具有一定的抑制作用.     

Comparison of protein precipitation methods for various rat brain structures prior to proteomic analysis

Sample preparation is a fundamental step in proteomic methodologies. The quality of the results from a proteomic experiment is dependent on the nature of the sample and the properties of the proteins. In this study, various pre-treatment methods were compared by proteomic analysis; we analysed various rat brain structures after chloroform/methanol, acetone, TCA/acetone and TCA protein precipitation procedures. The protein content of the supernatant was also examined by 2-DE. We found that for four of the rat brain structures, precipitation with chloroform/methanol and acetone delivered the highest protein recovery for top-down proteomic analysis; however, TCA precipitation resulted in good protein separation and the highest number of protein spots in 2-DE. Moreover, TCA precipitation also gave high efficiency of protein recovery if prior sonication procedure was performed.