Elevated forebrain excitatory l-glutamate, l-aspartate and d-aspartate in the Naples high-excitability rats

• Published in: Behavioural brain research Vol. 198; no. 1; pp. 24 - 28
• Main Authors: Ruocco, L.A., Carnevale, U.A. Gironi, Sadile, A.G., Sica, A., Arra, C., Di Maio, A., Topo, E., D’Aniello, A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Shannon Elsevier B.V 02-03-2009; Elsevier
• Subjects: Amino acids; Animal model; Animals; Aspartic Acid - analysis; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - metabolism; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - physiopathology; Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - psychology; Behavior, Animal; Behavioral psychophysiology; Behaviour; Biological and medical sciences; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Corpus Striatum - chemistry; Disease Models, Animal; Exploratory Behavior; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Glutamic Acid - analysis; Hippocampus - chemistry; Hypothalamus - chemistry; Maze Learning; Neurogenetics; Prefrontal Cortex - chemistry; Prosencephalon - chemistry; Prosencephalon - physiology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Rats; Rats, Inbred Strains; Space Perception; Animal model; Amino acids; Behaviour; Neurogenetics; Rat; Rodentia; Central nervous system; Excitability; Aspartate; Glutamate; Prosencephalon; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Animal; Excitatory aminoacid; Neurotransmitter; Behavior
• ISSN: 0166-4328; 1872-7549
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2008.11.029

The Naples high-excitability (NHE) rats are thought to model the mesocortical variant of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The aim of this study was to investigate forebrain level of
l-glutamate,
l-aspartate and
d-aspartate, in NHE vs. Naples random bred (NRB) control rats. Thus, prepuberal NHE and NRB rats were daily handled in the 5th and 6th week of postnatal life. Then rats were exposed to two spatial novelties i.e. a Làt and a Olton maze for 10
min. Amino acids were detected by HPLC in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), striatum (STR), hippocampus (HPC) and hypothalamus (HYP). Results indicate that all amino acids were higher in NHE than in NRB rats.
This, in turn, may explain the behavioural hyperactivity and attention deficit of this animal model of ADHD.