Research
Cerebral net exchange of large neutral amino acids after lipopolysaccharide infusion in healthy humans
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* Corresponding author: Ronan MG Berg ronan@dadlnet.dk
Critical Care 2010, 14:R16 doi:10.1186/cc8873
Amino acid imbalance and encephalopathy
Heikki Savolainen (2010-02-12 09:13) Dept. of Occup. Safety & Hlth., Tampere, Finland
Dear Editor,
This investigations shows that infusion of LPS may alter the brain uptake of amino acids. It is thought that this may be a contributing factor to the clinical encephalopathy analogously to effects of hyperammonemia (1).
One wonders whether this is due to an effect on the amino acid transporter across the blood-brain barrier (2) or whether it reflects changes in the circulation due to increased NO.
The postulated contributory role of amino acids would be more convincing if glutamate or glycine uptake would be specifically affected.
1 James JH, Jeppson B, Ziparo V, et al. Hyperammonemia, plasma amino acid imblanace and blood-brain amino acid transport. A unified theory of portal systemic encephalopathy. Lancet 1979; ii: 772
2 Smith QR, Momma S, Aoyagi M, et al. Kinetics of neutral amino acid transport across the blood-brain barrier. J Neurochem 1987; 49: 603
Competing interests
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