Shosuke Watanabe

CORRELATION BETWEEN [U‐14C]GLUCOSE METABOLISM AND FUNCTION IN PERFUSED CAT BRAIN

Abstract— In brain perfusion experiments conducted with blood containing [U‐14C]glucose the relative specific activity (RSA) of blood glucose carbon incorporated in brain intermediate metabolites was measured. It was demonstrated that the so‐called metabolic pattern of Geiger is not constant, but it bears a close relation to the function of the brain. The results of the study may be summarized briefly as follows.

Lithium Concentration in Cerebrospinal Fluid of Affective Psychotic Patients Treated with Lithium Carbonate and its Clinical Response

The use of lithium carbonate for the treatment of affective psychosis is gradually gaining in momentum. Since the lithium therapeutic level in serum is already confirmed in lithium therapy, it can be said to be a very specific drug among the psychotropic drugs as it can be used by checking its concentration in serum. It has been clarifiede that lithium salts administered to the body is distributed to practically all the organs, but there is hardly any report demonstrating lithium ion concentration in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) except for the reports by Gershon et aL8 (1960), Barker et al. (1966) and Paul et aL7 (1973). Assuming that the lithium ion concentration in CSF reflects most faithfully in the central nervous system, the determination of CSF lithium ion concentration would be just as important as its determination in serum for the clarification of its action mechanism. In the present investigation, we measured simultaneously the lithium ion concentrations in CSF and serum of various affective psychotic patients being treated with lithium

Effects of various cerebral metabolic activators on glucose metabolism of brain

The effects of various metabolic activators on the glucose metabolism of the perfused cat brain have been investigated. (1) When the perfusion is done with the blood containing cytidine monophosphate, the glucose metabolism of the brain is enhanced, as compared to the perfusion with the blood without cytidine monophosphate. There is no marked change in the cerebral metabolic rate and in the contents of intermediate metabolite of glucose in the brain. (2) Citicoline enhances the incorporation of blood glucose into the brain and its metabolism in the brain. It increases slightly the cerebral blood flow rate and decreases the accumulation of lactate in the brain. (3) Either Pyrithioxin or Meclophenoxate has no effect on the glucose metabolism of the brain nor on the cerebral metabolic rate.

Lithium Carbonate Treatment in Manic Psychosis

For the treatment of mania the electroconvulsive treatment and the continuous sleep treatment had formerly been used widely, but at present major tranquilizers are most frequently employed. It generally requires a large dose of tranquilizers for controlling manic excitement but we often encounter many cases in which we cannot attain sufficient therapeutic effect with these drugs. Therefore, it is desirable to develop more effective and various kinds of antimanic drugs. Ever since CadeJ (1 949) reported that lithium salts were effective in the treatment of mania, many reports on its clinical efficacy have appeared. Especially, in the past decade, clinical reports concerning lithium carbonate rapidly increased. In 1968, after surveying the clinical results of uncontrolled study on lithium carbonate up to that time, Schowq7 found the effective rate of lithium carbonate on manic state to be 70-80%. On the basis of these results, since 1967 the authors have been studying clinical effects on manic states as well as the action mechanism of lithium ion, and have already reported somezb 27 47 of the results. In this paper, clinical effects, the effective concentration of serum lithium, accompanying symptoms and side-effects of lithium carbonate in manic states are reported.

Clinical effects of lithium carbonate on depression.

1. Therapeutic effects of lithium carbon ate were studied on a total of 55 cases comprising 15 cases of involutional melancholia, 23 cases of monopolar depression and 17 of bipolar depression.

Autoradiographic Distribution of 131I-Clioquinol in Beagle Dogs

To disclose the neurotoxicity of clioquino1 in and its etiological correlation with SMON in Japanese, absorption and organ distribution of radioactive clioquinol was determined by means of scintillation lo and micro-autoradiography. To visualize quantitative distribution of clioquinol in various organs by means of macro-autoradiography and to assure our previous micro-autoradiography, a large amount of I-clioquinol was administered to two beagle dogs.

Metabolism of 131I‐Chinoform in the Rats Treated with Carbon Tetrachloride

INTRODUCTION In a previous paper”) we reported our study about chinoform metabolism by using labelled chinoform. The results then have revealed that the major portion of chinoform is excreted into urine in the form of glucuronic acid conjugate. Therefore, in order to maintain the toxicity of chinoform in vivo, it is necessary to increase the amount of free chinoform in the body. As a step towards this purpose the administration of carbon tetrachloride into rats would be feasible. It can be assumed that in the carbon tetrachloride-induced fattey liver as a result of liver disturbances the conjugating ability of glucuronic acid is decreased (a decrease of activated glucuronic acid) and glucuronic acid bound chinoform decreases but free chinoform increases. In the present study we induced carbon tetrachloride fatty liver in rats and then injected intravenously 1311-chinoform to these animals to determine whether or not the ratio of free chinoform to conjugate chinonorm would increase. The results are presented as follows.

L-〔U-14C〕tyrosine metabolism of the perfused cat brain with high plasma phenylalanine or without plasma tyrosine

Cat brain perfusion was carried out with standard artificial blood containing 2 mg/dl of L‐tyrosine and also with standard blood not containing tyrosine, for 70 minutes in each group. In addition, another group was perfused with the tyrosine‐containing artificial blood plus 50 mg/dl of L‐phenylalanine. Each of these experiments was conducted to see how such blood would affect the tyrosine metabolism of the brain. The results are summarized briefly.

EFFECTS OF INTRACAROTID ADMINISTRATION OF β‐PHENYL‐γ‐AMINOBUTYRIC ACID ON THE PERFUSED CAT BRAIN

An investigation was carried out on the effects of intracarotid administration of β‐phenyl‐γ‐aminobutyric acid (β‐phenyl‐GABA) on the functions of a perfused cat brain. After injecting one ml, each of containing 1, 5, 10, 20, 25, or 35mg/ml of β‐phenyl‐GABA into the tubes perfusing the carotid arteries with standard artificial blood, the acute effects of the drug on EEG, cerebral blood flow, and oxygen consumption were observed.