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NINHYDRIN POSITIVE SUBSTANCES PRESENT IN DIFFERENT AREAS OF NORMAL RAT BRAIN *
Author(s) -
Shaw R. K.,
Heine J. D.
Publication year - 1965
Publication title -
journal of neurochemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.75
H-Index - 229
eISSN - 1471-4159
pISSN - 0022-3042
DOI - 10.1111/j.1471-4159.1965.tb06751.x
Subject(s) - ninhydrin , chromatography , chemistry , paper chromatography , biochemistry , amino acid
E arly investigations (R oberts , L owe , G uth and J elinek , 1958) of the ninhydrin positive substances of the whole brain of rats indicated that these substances were unchanged by various drug treatments or physiological stresses. It was mentioned at that time that studies of the whole brain could be misleading. Later work with whole brains of rats and mice (H äkkinen and K ulonen , 1961; S oep and J anssen , 1961; D e R opp and S nedeker , 1961; K amrin and K amrin , 1961) revealed that the administration of different drugs does alter the concentration of several of the free amino acids. Although no meaningful pattern of changes was evident, these reports raised the possibility that a meaningful pattern of changes could be found through a more detailed study with more refined techniques. In recent years the development of dual column (S packman , S tein and M oore , 1958) and single column (P iez and M orris , 1960) amino acid analysers has facilitated the relatively rapid separation and determination of ninhydrin positive substances in biological extracts. The studies of T allan , M oore and S tein (1954) had already established the large number of ninhydrin positive substances present in the brain of a cat as revealed by column chromatography, including unknown peaks. This paper describes in detail the procedures used in establishing the concentrations of ninhydrin positive substances in four areas of the rat brain. Other body organs and tissues were analysed for comparison to establish the presence of unknown substances peculiar to the brain.