Metabolic Changes in Rat Brain After Prolonged Ethanol Consumption Measured by super(1)H and super(31)P MRS Experiments

• Published in: Cellular and molecular neurobiology Vol. 20; no. 6; pp. 703 - 716
• Main Authors: Braunova, Z, Kasparova, S, Mlynarik, V, Mierisova, S, Liptaj, T, Tkac, I, Gvozdjakova, A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.12.2000
• Subjects: magnetic resonance spectroscopy
• ISSN: 0272-4340

In vivo super(1)H and super(31)P magnetic resonance spectroscopy techniques were applied to reveal biochemical changes in the rat brain caused by prolonged ethanol consumption. Three models of ethanol intoxication were used. super(1)H MRS showed a significant decrease in the concentration of myo-inositol in the brain of rats fed with 20% ethanol for 8 weeks. This change is consistent with perturbances in astrocytes. On the other hand, N-acetyl aspartate and choline content did not differ from controls. super(31)P MRS did not reveal any significant changes in the high-energy phosphates or intracellular free Mg super(2+) content in the brain of rats after 14 weeks of 20% ethanol drinking. The intracellular pH was diminished. By means of a super(31)P saturation transfer technique, a significant decrease was observed for the pseudo first-order rate constant k sub(for) of the creatine kinase reaction in the brain of rats administered 30% ethanol for 3 weeks using a gastric tube. The super(1)H MRS results may indicate that myo-inositol loss, reflecting a disorder in astrocytes, might be one of the first changes associated with alcoholism, which could be detected in the brain by means of in vivo super(1)H MRS. The results from super(31)P MRS experiments suggest that alcoholism is associated with decreased brain energy metabolism. super(31)P saturation transfer, which provides insight into the turnover of high-energy phosphates, could be a more suitable technique for studying the brain energetics in chronic pathological states than conventional super(31)P MRS.