US-Sweden Cooperative Research: Mathematical Studies of Dopamine and Microdialysis

该奖项将支持埃默里大学的约瑟夫·贾斯蒂斯博士和瑞典斯德哥尔摩卡罗林斯卡研究所药理学系的乌尔班·昂格施塔特博士之间的合作研究。这项研究的目的是研究多巴胺的神经化学，并更好地表征微透析，这是一种监测多巴胺和其他神经递质、代谢物和相关化合物化学的新方法。在这个项目中合作的两个实验室是参与快速发展的活体透析技术的领先实验室。这项技术已经被证明对检测大脑细胞外液的化学成分很有用。这项拟议的研究将继续研究透析对周围组织的影响，探索将获得的化学信息与突触区域联系起来的方法，并特别研究儿茶酚胺在多巴胺能神经元中的摄取作用。该项目将涉及多巴胺能神经末梢的数学建模。这两个实验室的新数据将被纳入模型中。摄取和抑制摄取将是一个特别的努力重点。此外，还将介绍两个实验室用于研究多巴胺的微透析取样方法。该特征将包括对在细胞外液采样期间产生的扩散分布的数学分析。这将为这项技术提供重要的新信息，这项技术正越来越多地在美国和欧洲的许多实验室使用。

This award will support collaborative research between Dr. Joseph Justice, Emory University, and Dr. Urban Ungerstadt, Department of Pharmacology, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. The objective of the research is to investigate dopamine neurochemistry and to better characterize microdialysis, a new method of monitoring the chemistry of dopamine and other neuro-transmitters, metabolites and related compounds. The two laboratories cooperating in this project are the leading ones involved in the rapidly emerging technique of in vivo dialysis. This technique has already been shown to be useful to examine the chemical composition of the extracellular fluid of the brain. The proposed research will continue the investigation of the effect of dialysis on the surrounding tissue, investigate ways to relate the chemical information obtained to the synaptic region, and specifically examine the role of uptake of catechola- mines in dopaminergic neurons. The project will involve mathema- tical modeling of the dopaminergic nerve terminal. New data from the two laboratories will be incorporated into the model. Uptake and inhibition of uptake will be a particular focus of effort. In addition, the microdialysis sampling methodology in use in both laboratories to study dopamine will be characterized. The charac- terization will consist of a mathematical analysis of the diffusion profiles created during sampling of the extracellular fluid. This will provide important new information about a technique that is being increasingly used in many laboratories in the United States and Europe.