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

该奖项将支持埃默里大学Joseph Justice博士和瑞典斯德哥尔摩卡罗林斯卡学院药学系Urban Ungerstadt博士之间的合作研究。本研究的目的是研究多巴胺神经化学，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体内透析技术的领先实验室。这项技术已经被证明对检查大脑细胞外液的化学成分很有用。该研究将继续研究透析对周围组织的影响，研究将获得的化学信息与突触区域联系起来的方法，并特别研究多巴胺能神经元中儿茶酚矿摄取的作用。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。摄取和抑制摄取将是一个特别的努力重点。此外，微透析取样方法在使用在两个实验室研究多巴胺将被表征。表征将包括对细胞外液取样过程中产生的扩散曲线的数学分析。这将为一种在美国和欧洲的许多实验室中越来越多地使用的技术提供重要的新信息。

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.