MICROFLUOROMETRIC ASSAY FOR CNS ZINC

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Evidence of the pivotal roles of zinc in neural and behavioral function is mounting at an accelerating pace. Both laboratory and clinical studies of development have shown that perinatal disturbance of zinc metabolism can produce permanent neural and behavioral deficits. Likewise, in adults, altered zinc status has been linked to disorders of appetite, learning, and memory and to psychopathologies as diverse as alcoholism, epilepsy, and schizophrenia. The rate of future progress in the psychobiology of zinc will be governed by the analytical methods available. As it now stands, even the simplest study, in which regional levels of brain zinc must be measured, requires techniques and instruments which not only are expensive and arduous to use but also are unfamiliar (and generally unavailable) to psychobiologists. Worse yet, there is presently no way whatever to assay zinc within the specific cellular and subcellular compartments in which the different functional pools of CNS zinc are sequestered. We are developing a quantitative, microfluorometric method of assaying zinc in CNS tissue, and we seek funds to complete the development of the method. At the very least, this new histofluorescent method will provide a rapid, accurate, and convenient method of measuirng zinc concentrations in cytoarchitectonically-defined regions of brain tissue. Moreover, we have encouraging evidence that the method can be used to assay the specific zinc pools which lie within certain types of cells and organelles of the CNS. Disorders of cerebral zinc metabolism are implicated in a variety of neuropsychological conditions. The methods under development in the present work will facilitate basic research in zinc neurobiology and may be expected to contribute to the development of rational and informed strategies for diagnosis and management of psychopathologies involving the cerebral metabolism of zinc.