Cerebral metabolic compartmentation as revealed by nuclear magnetic resonance analysis of D-[1-13C]glucose metabolism.

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) was used to study the metabolic pathways involved in the conversion of glucose to glutamate, gamma-aminobutyrate (GABA), glutamine, and aspartate. D-[1-13C]Glucose was administered to rats intraperitoneally, and 6, 15, 30, or 45 min later the rats were killed and extracts from the forebrain were prepared for 13C-NMR analysis and amino acid analysis. The absolute amount of 13C present within each carbonatom pool was determined for C-2, C-3, and C-4 of glutamate, glutamine, and GABA, for C-2 and C-3 of aspartate, and for C-3 of lactate. The natural abundance 13C present in extracts from control rats was also determined for each of these compounds and for N-acetylaspartate and taurine. The pattern of labeling within glutamate and GABA indicates that these amino acids were synthesized primarily within compartments in which glucose was metabolized to pyruvate, followed by decarboxylation to acetyl-CoA for entry into the tricarboxylic acid cycle. In contrast, the labeling pattern for glutamine and aspartate indicates that appreciable amounts of these amino acids were synthesized within a compartment in which glucose was metabolized to pyruvate, followed by carboxylation to oxaloacetate. These results are consistent with the concept that pyruvate carboxylase and glutamine synthetase are glia-specific enzymes, and that this partially accounts for the unusual metabolic compartmentation in CNS tissues. The results of our study also support the concept that there are several pools of glutamate, with different metabolic turnover rates.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)