Amino acid contents and glutamate decarboxylase activity in brain of methylazoxymethanol-induced microencephalic rats.

Abstract

The amounts of amino-acid neurotransmitters and GAD activity were determined in different brain regions of microencephalic rats that were offspring of mother rats injected with methylazoxymethanol (MAM)-acetate on the 15th day of pregnancy.The contents of GABA, taurine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, and glycine in the cerebrum, the target organ of MAM, of 90 days old MAM-induced microencephalic rats were higher than those of control animals. No difference was noted in the contents of these neurotransmitters on postpartum day 21 except for aspartic acid. The postnatal contents of these amino-acid neurotransmitters in the cerebellum, which is not a target organ of MAM, were not affected by prenatal MAM-treatment, except that GABA in 21 days old MAM-induced microencephalic rats was lower than in control rats.In microencephalic rats, the cerebral cortex, nucleus caudate-putamen, hippocampus, and thalamus-hypothalamus weighed 50% less than in control rats, but the colliculus-midbrain, and cerebellum had simila...