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Role of excitatory aminoacids in neonatal hypoglycemia
Author(s) -
Aral Yusuf Ziya,
GÜCÜYener KİVİLcİM,
Atalay YİLdİZ,
HasanoǦLu Alev,
TÜRkyilmaz Canan,
Sayal Ahmet,
BiberoǦLu GÜRsel
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
pediatrics international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.49
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1442-200X
pISSN - 1328-8067
DOI - 10.1111/j.1442-200x.1998.tb01936.x
Subject(s) - medicine , hypoglycemia , excitatory postsynaptic potential , neonatal hypoglycemia , pediatrics , endocrinology , genetics , insulin , receptor , pregnancy , biology , gestational diabetes , gestation
Background:In many neurological disorders, injury to neurons may be due in part to overstimulation of the receptors for the excitatory amino acids glutamate and aspartate. The same excitotoxic mechanism and high aspartate levels in experimental studies led to this study of the concentrations of glutamate and aspartate and zinc, copper, and magnesium levels in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of hypoglycemic newborns.Methods:Aspartate and glutamate were determined by high‐performance liquid chromatography, and magnesium, zinc and copper by atomic absorption spectrophotometer.Results:The CSF levels of aspartate (3.98 ± 1.77 μmol/L) and glutamate (1.7 ± 1.05 μmol/L) in 20 hypoglycemic newborns were significantly higher when compared with the values of aspartate (2.19 ± 0.6 μmol/L) and glutamate (0.77 ± 0.34 μmol/L) of 10 control newborns. In the hypoglycemic patients, the concentration of zinc (0.57 ±0.13 μg/mL), but not copper (0.39 ± 0.40 μg/mL) was significantly lower when compared with the control values. There was no difference in the magnesium levels between the two groups.Conclusions:The higher levels of excitatory amino acids found in the CSF of hypoglycemic infants than in controls were consistent with previous animal studies, which may indicate the role of excitatory amino acids in the late biochemical effects of hypoglycemia in newborn brain metabolism.