Neuronal cultures in vitro readily oxidized both D-[ 14 C]glucose and L-[14C]lactate to 14 CO2, whereas astroglial cultures oxidized both substrates sparingly and metabolized glucose predominantly to lactate and released it into the medium. [ 14 C]Glucose oxidation to 14 CO2 varied inversely with unlabeled lactate concentration in the medium, particularly in neurons, and increased progressively with decreasing lactate concentration. Adding unlabeled glucose to the medium inhibited [ 14 C]lactate oxidation to 14 CO2 only in astroglia but not in neurons, indicating a kinetic preference in neurons for oxidation of extracellular lactate over intracellular pyruvate͞ lactate produced by glycolysis. Protein kinase-catalyzed phosphorylation inactivates pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH), which regulates pyruvate entry into the tricarboxylic acid cycle. Dichloroacetate inhibits this kinase, thus enhancing PDH activity. In vitro dichloroacetate stimulated glucose and lactate oxidation to CO2 and reduced lactate release mainly in astroglia, indicating that limitations in glucose and lactate oxidation by astroglia may be due to a greater balance of PDH toward the inactive form. To assess the significance of astroglial export of lactate to neurons in vivo, we attempted to diminish this traffic in rats by administering dichloroacetate (50 mg͞kg) intravenously to stimulate astroglial lactate oxidation and then examined the effects on baseline and functionally activated local cerebral glucose utilization (lCMRglc). Dichloroacetate raised baseline lCMRglc throughout the brain and decreased the percent increases in lCMRglc evoked by functional activation. These studies provide evidence in support of the compartmentalization of glucose metabolism between astroglia and neurons but indicate that the compartmentalization may be neither complete nor entirely obligatory.G lucose is an essential and normally almost exclusive substrate for cerebral energy metabolism (1). As in other tissues, it is metabolized in brain in two sequential pathways, first to pyruvate͞lactate by glycolysis in cytosol, followed by oxidation in mitochondria to CO 2 and H 2 O. It was recently proposed that the glycolytic and oxidative components of glucose and glycogen metabolism are compartmentalized not only between cytosol and mitochondria but also between astroglia and neurons, i.e., glucose and glycogen metabolism in astroglia to lactate, which is then exported to neurons where it is oxidized to provide the ATP needed for neuronal function (2, 3). Arguments in support of this hypothesis are: (i) capillaries in brain are largely enveloped by astroglial processes that present a barrier to the transport of glucose from blood to neurons; (ii) glycogen in brain is confined almost entirely to astrocytes; (iii) astrocytes in culture readily metabolize glucose to lactate and release it into the medium (4, 5); and (iv) glutamate, the most prevalent excitatory neurotransmitter in brain, stimulates aerobic glycolysis in cultured astrocytes (6, 7). Much of the evidence suppo...

gamma-Hydroxybutyrate has been found to be widely distributed in both neural and extraneural tissues in the rat. The kidney and brown fat have more than 10 times higher concentrations of gamma-hydroxybutyrate than does the brain. This observation suggests that gamma-hydroxybutyrate may participate in the metabolism of many organs, and that GABA may not be the precursor in extraneural tissues.

The concentration of potassium in the extracellular fluid has been found to stimulate the rate of CO2 fixation by astroglial cells grown in primary culture. Raising the concentration of extracellular potassium increased both the initial rate of formation of the 14C-labeled products of 14CO2 fixation and the final steady-state level of these products within the cells. In contrast, neither veratridine nor L-glutamate affected the rate of CO2 fixation in astroglial cells. The very low rate of CO2 fixation found in primarily neuronal cultures was unaffected by increased extracellular potassium as was CO2 fixation in fibroblasts. When cultured alone, astroglial cells release a large fraction of the 14C-labeled products of CO2 fixation into the surrounding medium. Mixed cultures of astroglia and neurons also fix CO2 but, in contrast to astroglia cultured alone, release only a small fraction of the 14C-labeled products into the culture medium.

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Abstract— An NADP+ ‐linked enzyme, capable of interconverting γ‐hydroxybutyrate and succinic semialdehyde, has been isolated from hamster liver and brain. The enzyme which was isolated from liver has been purified 300‐fold and exhibits a single band by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. The molecular weight of the enzyme is ‐ 31,000 as estimated from gel filtration and 38,000 as estimated from sodium dodccyl sulfate gel electrophoresis. The enzyme is inhibited by amobarbital, diphenylhy‐dantoin, 2‐propylvalerate, and diethyldithiocarbamate, but not by pyrazole. The enzymes from brain and liver appear to be very similar with regard to their molecular weights and their kinetic constants for γ‐hydroxybutyrate and succinic semialdehyde.

The incorporation of 14C into glycogen in rat brain has been measured under the same conditions that exist during the measurement of local cerebral glucose utilization by the autoradiographic 2-[14C]deoxyglucose method. The results demonstrate that approximately 2% of the total 14C in brain 45 min after the pulse of 2-[14C]deoxyglucose is contained in the glycogen portion, and, in fact, incorporated into alpha-1-4 and alpha-1-6 deoxyglucosyl linkages. When the brain is removed by dissection, as is routinely done in the course of the procedure of the 2-[14C]deoxyglucose method to preserve the structure of the brain for autoradiography, the portion of total brain 14C contained in glycogen falls to less than 1%, presumably because of postmortem glycogenolysis which restores much of the label to deoxyglucose-phosphates. In any case, the incorporation of the 14C into glycogen is of no consequence to the validity of the autoradiographic deoxyglucose method, not because of its small magnitude, but because 2-[14C]deoxyglucose is incorporated into glycogen via [14C]deoxyglucose-6-phosphate, and the label in glycogen represents, therefore, an additional "trapped" product of deoxyglucose phosphorylation by hexokinase. With the autoradiographic 2-[14C]deoxyglucose method, in which only total 14C concentration in the brain tissue is measured by quantitative autoradiography, it is essential that all the labeled products derived directly or indirectly from [14C]deoxyglucose phosphorylation by hexokinase be retained in the tissue; their chemical identity is of no significance.

The concentration of gamma-hydroxybutyrate (GHB) in brain, kidney, and muscle as well as the clearance of [1-14C]GHB in plasma have been found to be altered by the administration of a number of metabolic intermediates and drugs that inhibit the NADP+-dependent oxidoreductase, "GHB dehydrogenase," an enzyme that catalyzes the oxidation of GHB to succinic semialdehyde. Administration of valproate, salicylate, and phenylacetate, all inhibitors of GHB dehydrogenase, significantly increased the concentration of GHB in brain; salicylate increased GHB concentration in kidney, and alpha-ketoisocaproate increased GHB levels in kidney and muscle. The half-life of [1-14C]GHB in plasma was decreased by D-glucuronate, a compound that stimulates the oxidation of GHB by this enzyme and was increased by a competitive substrate of the enzyme, L-gulonate. The results of these experiments suggest a role for GHB dehydrogenase in the regulation of tissue levels of endogenous GHB.

",/-Hydroxybutyrate (GHB) is a naturally occurring compound present in micromolar concentration in both brain (1,2) and in peripheral tissues (3). This endogenous compound is remarkable in that pharmacological doses of 200-500 mg/kg produce marked behavioral and electroencephalographic changes (4), a profound decrease in cerebral glucose utilization (5), an increase in striatal dopamine levels (6) and a decrease in body temperature (7). High doses of GHB have also been reported to protect neurons (8) and intestinal epithelium (9) against cell death resulting from experimental ischemia. Behavioral changes are not seen with doses of less than 30 mg/ kg, but low doses stimulate the release of prolactin, growth hormone and cortisol (10,11), and doses of 5-10 mg/kg result in an increase in body temperature (12). These actions, and the discovery of high affinity binding sites for GHB in the central nervous system (13), suggest that GHB may have a biological function. Both the origin of endogenous GHB and its catabolism are, therefore, of considerable interest. This review will cover the early work on the degradative pathway for GHB and the discovery of a dual pathway for the initial step in the oxidative catabolism of GHB. The factors which regulate the activity of the