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BRAIN REGIONAL SPERMIDINE AND SPERMINE LEVELS IN RELATION TO RNA AND DNA IN AGING RAT BRAIN 1
Author(s) -
Shaskan E. G.
Publication year - 1977
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.1471-4159.1977.tb10421.x
Subject(s) - spermidine , spermine , polyamine , hippocampus , striatum , endocrinology , medicine , biology , putrescine , rna , dopamine , biochemistry , enzyme , gene
— The polyamines spermidine and spermine were measured in brain regions from adult male rats aged 2, 10 and 20 months. Spermine levels displayed marked constancy in all brain regions studied across all ages. However, spermidine concentrations, as expressed per microgram DNA, significantly increased as a function of age in the hypothalamus, corpus striatum and medulla oblongata‐pons. Similar trends with age of increased spermidine steady‐state levels, but not reaching statistical significance, were observed in the cerebral cortex, midbrain and hippocampus. An absolute decline with age in DNA levels was observed only in the hippocampus. Total RNA levels, as expressed per DNA, tended to decline in all brain regions between 2 and 10 months with a reversal in this trend between 10 and 20 months in all regions except the corpus striatum. Perhaps the increased steady‐state levels of spermidine, which may represent significantly increased turnover rates of this polyamine, are compensatory responses to a decreased turnover of RNA. Alternatively, the observed changes in the spermidine to spermine ratio with age may reflect changes in neuronal‐glial relationships within brain regions.