Dennosuke Jinnai

Gamma-guanidinobutyric acid as a convulsive substance.

IRREVERKE et al.1,2 have demonstrated the presence of γ-guanidinobutyric acid in the brain, kidney and liver of animals, using paper chromatography, and have isolated the substance in pure form from calf brain. Pisano, Mitoma and Udenfriend3 demonstrated that γ-guanidino-butyric acid is produced from y-aminobutyric acid and arginine by transamidinase activity in mammalian kidney. The present communication describes the seizures caused by administration of the compound to rabbits.

Anti-convulsive action of gamma-aminobutyryl choline.

γ-AMINOBUTYRYL choline (GABA-choline) is a substance isolated by Kuriaki et al.1 from the trichloroacetate-soluble fraction of normal dog brain, and it was shown by Takahashi et al.2 that this substance had a pronounced suppressive action against the local electrical response to direct electrical stimulation of the cerebral cortex. In the work recorded here, the anticonvulsive action of this substance was examined in detail in the rabbit, dog and ep-mouse3,4. Convulsions can be regularly induced in animals by intravenous injection of a given concentration of ‘Metrazol’ at a set speed, and a generalized clonic seizure followed by a tonic seizure always occurs when a certain quantity has been injected. The effect of GABA-choline on this seizure was examined.