Puneet Bagga1, Anant Bahadur Patel1
1NMR Microimaging and Spectroscopy, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India
There is a rapid increase in the number of neurons and synapse formation in the brain during postnatal development with glutamatergic and GABAergic neurons undergoing large increases in neurotransmitter cycling and oxidative energy metabolism. Whereas, no or little information is available for astroglial activity during this period. Male SD rats were studied at P10 and P30 by infusing [2-13C]acetate and 1H-[13C]-NMR Spectroscopy. In addition to remarkable neurochemical changes, acetate utilization was found to be increased by three folds at P30 indicating increased astroglial activity during postnatal period.