Abstract
In the earlier studies of brain metabolism by the use of labelled metabolites it was assumed that precursor and product are distributed evenly throughout the tissue and that metabolism proceeds as in a homogeneous system. However it soon became evident that the brain is metabolically as well as anatomically heterogeneous. This was shown by the labelling kinetics, as when a reaction product has a specific radioactivity which is apparently higher than the precursor from which it is formed (see Berl, Chapter 1). The results are consistent with the view that the tissue contains separate compartments which differ significantly in their metabolic properties. The situation described as ‘metabolic compartmentation’ implies that in a significant fraction of the tissue the fate of a marker substance differs from that in the rest of the tissue. In a heterogeneous system the fate of a metabolite normally depends on the route of entry, the rate of arrival at specific reaction sites, and the characteristics of the metabolic machinery at the different sites. Metabolic compartmentation implies incomplete mixing of metabolites, which may result not only from permeability barriers, but also from differences in the rate of metabolism at the different sites coupled with a delay in equilibration. This will occur if the passage of a metabolite from one part of a cell to another is slow in relation to the rate of processing of the metabolite. In this connection it is relevant that the central nervous system (CNS) contains cells in which distances from cell body to terminal processes are exceptionally large and in which the time required for the transport or diffusion of metabolites is therefore a factor that must be considered.
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Balázs, R., Patel, A.J., Richter, D. (1973). Metabolic Compartments in the Brain: Their Properties and Relation to Morphological Structures. In: Balázs, R., Cremer, J.E. (eds) Metabolic Compartmentation in the Brain. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-81567-8_13
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