High-energy head-focused microwave irradiation for neurochemical analysis of brain lipids, neurotransmitters and energy related metabolites

大脑发出信号（传递信息的能力）是一个非常迅速和敏感的事件。虽然这对生存非常有用，但这意味着在实验室研究中，提取啮齿动物大脑的压力可能会改变被测量的变量。几个众所周知的脑代谢物的例子是，由于缺乏血液（或氧气）流向大脑而发生显著变化，包括脂肪酸、神经递质和与能量相关的代谢物。通常，研究人员避免进行这些重要的测量，仅仅是因为它们的水平变化太大，使得结果难以解释。已经开发的一种方法是将移除大脑带来的压力降到最低，这种方法是高能头部聚焦微波辐射。这种方法包括用非常强大的微波束瞄准啮齿动物的头部，(a)非常迅速（不到1秒）使动物安乐死，(b)停止所有酶的功能，使大脑保持在基本状态。这种方法是一种人道的对啮齿动物实施安乐死的方法，它对于准确测量脑脂肪酸、神经递质和几种能量相关代谢物的水平是必不可少的。购买高能量的头部聚焦微波将使我们能够准确测量重要的（通常未被充分研究的）代谢物，这些代谢物对我们的研究项目至关重要。我们预计，获得高能头部聚焦微波不仅会立即改善我们目前的研究计划，而且在未来，它将使我们能够探索我们目前无法研究的新领域。

Brain signaling (the ability to transmit messages) is a very rapid and sensitive event.  Although this is very useful for survival it means that in a laboratory study the stress associated with extracting the rodent brain could alter the variable being measured.  Several well known examples of brain metabolites that are dramatically altered in response to a lack of blood flow (or oxygen) to the brain include fatty acids, neurotransmitters and energy related metabolites.  Often researchers avoid making these important measurements simply because their levels change so dramatically, making the results hard to interpret.  One method that has been developed to minimize the stress associated with removing the brain is high-energy head-focused microwave irradiation.  This method involves targeting the head of the rodent with a very powerful microwave beam that both (a) very rapidly (less than 1 second) euthanizes the animal and (b) stops all enzymatic function, preserving the brain in its basal state.  This methodology is a humane method of euthanizing rodents and it is essential for accurately measuring levels of brain fatty acids, neurotransmitters and several energy related metabolites.  The purchase of a high-energy head-focused microwave will allow us to make accurate measurements of important (often understudied) metabolites that are critical to our research programs.  We anticipate that the acquisition of a high-energy head-focused microwave will not only immediately improve upon our current research programs, but in the future it will allow us to explore novel areas, that we cannot currently examine.