The oxidation of the fatty acids octanoate and palmitate to CO2 and the ketone bodies acetoacetate and D-(-)-3-hydroxybutyrate was examined in astrocytes that were prepared from cortex of 2-day-old rat brain and grown in primary culture to confluence. Accumulation of acetoacetate (by mass) in the culture medium of astrocytes incubated with octanoate (0.3-0.5 mM) was 50-90 nmol C2 units h-1 mg of protein-1. A similar rate was obtained using radiolabeled tracer methodology with [1-14C]octanoate as labeled substrate. The results from the radiolabeled tracer studies using [1-14C]- and [7-14C]octanoate and [1-14C]-, [13-14C]-, and [15-14C]palmitate indicated that a substantial proportion of the omega-terminal four-carbon unit of these fatty acids bypassed the beta-ketothiolase step of the beta-oxidation pathway and the 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl (HMG)-CoA cycle of the classic ketogenic pathway. The [14C]acetoacetate formed from the 1-14C-labeled fatty acids, obligated to pass through the acetyl-CoA pool, contained 50% of the label at carbon 3 and 50% at carbon 1. By contrast, the [14C]acetoacetate formed from (omega-1)-labeled fatty acids contained 90% of the label at carbon 3 and 10% at carbon 1, whereas that formed from the (omega-3)-labeled fatty acid contained 20% of the label at carbon 3 and 80% at carbon 1. These results indicate that acetoacetate is primarily formed either by the action of 3-oxo-acid-CoA transferase (EC 2.8.3.5) or acetoacetyl-CoA deacylase (EC 3.1.2.11) or both on acetoacetyl-CoA and not by the action of the mitochondrial HMG-CoA cycle involving HMG-CoA lyase (EC 4.1.3.4), which was readily detected, and HMG-CoA synthase (EC 4.1.3.5), which was barely measurable.

Monitoring physiological changes in the brain parenchyma has important applications in the care of neurosurgical patients. A technique is described for measuring extracellular neurochemicals by cerebral microdialysis with simultaneous recording of electroencephalographic (EEG) and single-unit (neuron) activity in selected targets in the human brain. Forty-two patients with medically intractable epilepsy underwent stereotactically guided implantation of a total of 423 intracranial depth electrodes to delineate potentially resectable seizure foci. The electrodes had platinum alloy contacts for EEG recordings and four to nine 40-microm microwires for recording single-unit neuron activity. Eighty-six electrodes also included microdialysis probes introduced via the electrode lumens. During monitoring on the neurosurgical ward, electrophysiological recording and cerebral microdialysis sampling were performed during seizures, cognitive tasks, and sleep-waking cycles. The technique described here could be used in developing novel approaches for evaluation and treatment in a variety of neurological conditions such as head injury, subarachnoid hemorrhage, epilepsy, and movement disorders.

Milk substitutes containing cholesterol at concentrations lower, equal to or greater than the concentrations found in natural rat milk were fed to artificially reared rat pups from 5 d until 15 or 16 d after birth. Pups reared by their mother served as controls. In one experiment, D7-cholesterol was fed in the milk at four different concentrations. The purpose of the study was to determine whether cholesterol in milk influenced growth and the sterol composition of brain over the period of its most rapid accumulation in this organ. We found that body and brain weights were not different, irrespective of the concentration of cholesterol in the milk substitutes. High concentrations of cholesterol in milk caused a significant increase in cholesterol in liver and plasma, whereas the concentration of cholesterol in brain was not different from the concentration in the brain of controls. The amounts of D7-cholesterol in lung and liver, and in plasma and RBC that pass the brain, were consistent with the concentration fed in the milk and approached 70% of the total content of cholesterol in these organs at the highest concentration fed. Brain, by contrast, contained very small amounts of D7-cholesterol, which could readily be attributed to D7-cholesterol associated with the vascular system of the blood-brain barrier. We found that the sterol composition of brain is not influenced by the concentration of cholesterol in milk and that cholesterol exogenous to brain, even in a hypercholesterolemic condition, does not gain entry to the brain. We conclude that the brain biosynthesizes de novo all the cholesterol it requires.

This policy is a compilation of current concepts and scientific evidence required to understand and implement practice-based preventive oral health programs designed to improve oral health outcomes for all children and especially children at significant risk of dental decay. In addition, it reviews cariology and caries risk assessment and defines, through available evidence, appropriate recommendations for preventive oral health intervention by primary care pediatric practitioners. Pediatrics 2008;122:1387-1394

The metabolism of [1,2–¹³C₂] acetate via the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle leads to the formation of a number of key mass isotopomers of glutamate. The distribution of these isotopomers which is a function of pyruvate carboxylase, pyruvate dehydrogenase and pyruvate recycling was used to determine the relative anaplerotic flux and glutamine oxidation of astrocytes in culture under different substrate conditions. Combinatory analysis of mass isotopomers formed from the condensation of labeled oxaloacetate with labeled acetyl-CoA was used to determine precursor enrichment and fractional glutamine synthesis. When glucose or glutamine was supplied in the medium, the effective anaplerotic flux (Y') was about 1.5 times that of the TCA cycle flux. Under substrate-limiting conditions, Y' and glutamine synthesis was significantly reduced. A unique feature of the use of [1, 2–¹³C₂] acetate in this study is the formation of singly labeled isotopomer of glutamine in the C4 or C5 position when glutamine is irreversibly loss in net oxidation. We observed very little [4-¹³C] or [5-¹³C] glutamine either because of the lack of pyruvate recycling or the lack of pyruvate dehydrogenase activity. The lack of ^l3C recycling to the C4 and C5 position of glutamine suggests that less than 10% of the glutamine is oxidized in astrocytes for energy production. Therefore, glutamine is not a major energy substrate for astrocytes in culture.