Abstract
DETERMINATION of homovanillic acid (HVA) and 5-hydroxy-indole acetic acid (5HIAA) in human lumbar cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is becoming an important tool in the study of the metabolism in the brain of their respective precursors, dopamine and 5-hydroxytryptamine, and in the interpretation of the effects of drugs on these substances. The assumption that the concentration of the acidic metabolites HVA and 5HIAA in the lumbar CSF gives a measure of the amount of turnover of the parent amines in the brain is supported by several findings. (1) Amine metabolite concentrations in the lateral ventricular CSF of the dog correlate with their concentrations in adjacent brain areas1. (2) Peripherally administered HVA only penetrates slightly or not at all to lateral ventricular CSF in the cat2 or dog3, similar results being obtained for 5HIAA in the dog4. (3) Drugs which alter brain amine turnover in laboratory animals also alter the concentrations of the acidic metabolites in dog3, rabbit5 and human6 CSF in the appropriate direction. (4) In Parkinsonism and in senile and presenile dementia, conditions in which there is evidence of defective turnover of amines in the brain, low concentrations of HVA and 5HIAA are found in the CSF7.
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CURZON, G., GUMPERT, E. & SHARPE, D. Amine Metabolites in the Lumbar Cerebrospinal Fluid of Humans with Restricted Flow of Cerebrospinal Fluid. Nature New Biology 231, 189–191 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1038/newbio231189a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/newbio231189a0
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