Fifteen cases of patients referred for treatment of acute and chronic pain problems are reported. The results show that both epidural and peripheric hypertonic frozen saline 5 p. 100 injections were effective, as far as three months afterwards. The possible mechanism of action of frozen saline is discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1975

Selective uptake of (3H)beta-alanine by glia: association with glial uptake system for GABA.

On the basis of inhibitor studies it has been suggested that the high-affinity GABA uptake system in glial cells differs in its chemical specificity from that present in nerve terminals. In this paper it has been demonstrated that the GABA analogue, beta-alanine, is almost as good a substrate as GABA itself in the glial cell uptake system whilst not being transported at all into nerve terminals. Not only has [3H]beta-alanine been shown autoradiographically to be exclusively accumulated in glial sites in toeh sensory ganglia and slices of cerebral cortex, but in addition a virtually identical high-affinity uptake process for [3H] beta-alanine was demonstrated at both these sites. Furthermore, non-radioactive GABA was shown to be an equipotent inhibitor of [3H]beta-alanine uptake in sensory ganglia as well as in both small slices and synaptosomes prepared from cerebral cortical tissue, Finally, the competitive inhibition kinetics of GABA on [3H]beta-alanine uptake in cortical slices furnishes proof that intact glial sites of GABA uptake were present in such slices in addition to the more prominent and well documented uptake system in nerve terminals. The possible imporatnce of such glial fragments in brain slice and crude synaptosomal preparations is discussed.

Alanine↗

PubMed1975

On GABA metabolism in the gliocyte cells of the rat pineal gland.

The uptake of the inhibitory transmitter substance gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) into the adult rat pineal gland was studied autoradiographically using both light and electron microscopy. The sites of GABA uptake were shown to be exclusively present in the gliocyte cells of the gland following both in vitro incubation with tritiated GABA and after in vivo administration of the amino acid by intra-arterial injection. Both the pinealocyte cells and the numerous sympathetic axons in the gland were devoid of silver grains. Preliminary biochemical studies indicated that the gliocyte uptake process for GABA resembles that in the satellite glia of the sensory ganglia but differed from that in slices of the cerebral cortex. Evidence is also presented which shows the pineal gland to contain endogenous GABA and the enzymes directly associated with its in vivo metabolism, L-glutamate-1-carboxylase (EC 4.1.1.15) (GAD) and GABA-2-oxoglutarate aminotransferase (EC 2.6.1.19) (GABA-T). Furthermore, a 3-fold rise in endogenous GABA occurred in the pineal after inhibition of GABA-catabolism as would be expected if the GABA-shunt pathway was functionally active in the oxidative metabolism of the pineal gland.

Aminobutyrates↗

PubMed1975