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Elevated catecholamines in thirty‐day‐old chicken brain after depletion during development
Author(s) -
Sparber Sheldon B.,
Shideman Frederick E.
Publication year - 1970
Publication title -
developmental psychobiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.055
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1098-2302
pISSN - 0012-1630
DOI - 10.1002/dev.420030204
Subject(s) - reserpine , endocrinology , medicine , hatching , ontogeny , catecholamine , chemistry , norepinephrine , embryo , biology , dopamine , zoology , microbiology and biotechnology
The effects of prenatal reserpine administration upon uptake of tritiated norepinephrine (H 3 ‐NE) by newly hatched chick brain suggests an interference of catecholamine (CA) uptake and/or binding. The relationship between fluorescence from CA and the radioactivity from H 3 ‐NE approached unity in the control group where no such relation was seen in the reserpine treated group. Moreover, 30 days after hatching, CA levels in whole brain of chicks hatched from drug‐injected eggs were significantly higher than vehicle‐injected controls. However, reserpine did cause a slight but significant elevation of total protein in 14‐day‐old embryo brain. These data support the hypothesis that ontogenetic alteration of systems exhibiting end‐product inhibition can be of a long‐lasting, perhaps permanent nature. The direction of change in CA 30 days after hatching, opposite to the change induced pharmacologically during development, is additional support for the concept of „thermostat” type regulation of enzyme activity being determined by product concentration at critical periods during development.