Noradrenaline‐induced stimulation of glutamine metabolism in primary cultures of astrocytes

Effects of noradrenaline and of adrenergic subtype specific agonists on the uptake and metabolism of [ 14 C]glutamine and [ 14 C]glutamate in primary cultures of mouse astrocytes have been investigated. The total uptake of radioactivity from extracellular [ 14 C]glutamine into the cells was enhanced during exposure to 100 μM noradrenaline, isoproterenol, or clonidine. This is partly dag to an increased radioactivity in the glutamile pool and partly due to an increased formation of labeled glutamate from glutamine, which had become very marked (66%) after 240 min of incubation. The CO 2 formation from labeled glutamine during 4 hr of incubation was enhanced about twofold in the presence of noradrenaline. Ten millimolar amino oxyacetic acid (AOAA), a transamination inhibitor, had no effect on CO 2 formation from glutamine, indicating that the formation of α‐ketoglutarate from glutamate occurs as an oxidative deamination. The stimulation of 14 CO 2 production from labeled glutamine was at least as large when glucose was deleted from medium, suggesting that the increased 14 CO 2 formation represents a stimulation of glutamine metabolism as such and is not only a reflection of an increase in oxidative metabolism of glucose and a bidirectional exchange between α‐ketoglutarate and glutamate. The opposite process, incorporation of radioactivity from labeled glutamate into glutamine, was not enhanced in the presence of noradrenaline. The findings suggest that noradrenaline stimulates the rates of glutamine uptake, glutamate synthesis, and CO 2 production from glutamine and thus increases energy supply to astrocytes but has no effect on the opposite reaction, i.e., glutamine formation from glutamate, a reaction of importance for neuronal‐astrocytic interations. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.