PITUITARY AND CARBOHYDRATE METABOLISM OF THE BRAIN

Abstract

Changes in the brain function of certain patients are often connected with obvious disturbances of the pituitary function. In rats, changes of the brain function occur regularly after hypophysectomy. In order to analyse these changes, investigations of hexokinase activityand anaerobic glycolysis of the grey matter of the brain have been carried out. METHODS The grey matterwas carefully removed with bent iris scissors from the brain, and put into ice-chilled distilled water, homogenised, then pipetted into tubes which contained: 0.25 ml. A.T.P. (150 mg/10 ml), 0.06 ml. MgCl₂ (M/6), 0.09 ml. NaF (M), 0.45 ml.veronal buffer (pH 7.6), 0.15 ml. glucose solution (10 mg/ml) and a control tube with distilled Avater instead of glucose. After thorough mixing of the contents of the tubes, samples were taken for initial sugar estimation. The tubes were then incubated for 30 minutes at 30°C. after which time further samples Avere taken for analysis.