The Influences of Insulin Hypoglycaemic Coma, Repeated Electroshocks, and Chlorpromazine or β-Phenylisopropylmethylamine Administration on the Free Amino Acids in the Brain

Abstract

Many papers have been published from the standpoint that the etiology of mental diseases would be clarified by investigating the influences of the therapies effective to mental diseases and of drugs producing mental disorders on the metabolism of brain. On the amino acids metabolism, however, the change of the glutamic acid group has been chiefly discussed, and little study has been done on the effects of such treatments upon the whole pattern of amino acids in the brain. Several experiments (1, 2) have indicated that the total amino acid content of the brain tends to be maintained at a steady level, though large changes take place in the individual amino acids. From these facts, it would appear that the change of one component of the free amino acid pool of the brain must be accompanied with the complementary changes of the others. When we take up the subjects of amino acid metabolism in the brain, therefore, it would be essential that the pattern of amino acids as a whole should be investigated. Moore and Stein (3) have reported that the ion-exchange chromatography gives the most satisfactory results for such analysis of the spectra of amino acids. The present study has been undertaken to obtain the changes of the free amino acid pattern in the brain of rats due to insulin hypoglycaemic coma, electroshock, and chlorpromazine or β-phenylisopropylmethylamine administration by application of the ion-exchange chromatographic procedure.