LIST OF TITLES Already published A Biochemical Approach to Nutrition Biochemical Genetics (second edition) Biological Energy Conservation (second edition) Biomechanics Brain Biochemistry (second edition) Cellular Degradative Processes Cellular Development Cellular Recognition Control of Enzyme Activity Cytogenetics of Man and other Animals Differentiation of Cells Enzyme Kinetics Functions of Biological Membranes Genetic Engineering: Cloning DNA Hormone Action Human Evolution Human Genetics Immunochemistry Insect Biochemistry Isoenzymes Metabolic Regulation Metals in Biochemistry Molecular Virology Motility of Living Cells Plant Cytogenetics Polysaccharide Shapes Population Genetics Protein Biosynthesis RNA Biosynthesis The Selectivity of Drugs Transport Phenomena in Plants R. A. Freedland. S. Briggs R. A. Woods C. Jones R. McN. Alexander H. S. Bachelard R. T. Dean D. R. Garrod M. F. Greaves P. Cohen A. McDermott M. Bownes P. C. Engel M. Davies D. Glover A. Malkinson B. A. Wood J. H. Edwards M. W. Steward H. H. Rees C. C. Rider. C. B. Taylor R. Denton. C. I. Pogson P. M. Harrison. R. Hoare T. H. Pennington. D. A. Ritchie P. Cappuccinelli D. M. Moore D. A. Rees L. M. Cook A. E. Smith R. H. Burdon A. Albert D. A. Baker In preparation Bacterial Taxonomy Biochemical Systematics The Cell Cycle Gene Structure and Function Invertebrate Nervous Systems Membrane Assembly D. Jones. M. Goodfellow J. B. Harborne S. Shall M. Szekely G. Lunt J. Haslam
Editor's Foreword The student of biological science in his final years as an undergraduate and his first years as a graduate is expected to gain some familiarity with current research at the frontiers of his discipline. New research work is published in a perplexing diversity of publications and is inevitably concerned with the minutiae of the subject. The sheer number of research journals and papers also causes confusion and difficulties of assimilation. Review articles usually presuppose a background knowledge of the field and are inevitably rather restricted in scope. There is thus a need for short but authoritative introductions to those areas of modern biological research which are either not dealt with in standard introductory textbooks or are not dealt with in sufficient detail to enable the student to go on from them to read scholarly reviews with profit. This series of books is designed to satisfy this need. The authors have been asked to produce a brief outline of their subject assuming that their readers will have read and remembered much of a standard introductory textbook on biology. This outline then sets out to provide by building on this basis, the conceptual framework within which modern research work is progressing and aims to give the reader an indication of the problems, both conceptual and practical, which must be overcome if progress is to be maintained. We hope that students will go on to read the more detailed reviews and articles to which reference is made with a greater insight and understanding of how they fit into the overall scheme of modern research effort and may thus be helped to choose where to make their own contribution to this effort. These books are guidebooks, not textbooks. Modern research pays scant regard for the academic divisions into which biological teaching and introductory textbooks must, to a certain extent, be divided. We have thus concentrated in this series on providing guides to those areas which fall between, or which involve, several different academic disciplines. It is here that the gap between the textbook and the research paper is widest and where the need for guidance is greatest. In so doing we hope to have extended or supplemented but not supplanted main texts, and to have given students assistance in seeing how modern biological research is progressing, while at the same time providing a foundation for self help in the achievement of successful examination results General Editors: W.1. Brammar, Professor of Biochemistry, University of Leicester, UK M. Edidin, Professor of Biology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA
Brain Biochemistry H. S. Bachelard Professor of Biochemistry, St. Thomas's Hospital Medical School, London Second edition Chapman and Hall London and New York
First published in 1974 Reprinted in 1976 Second edition published in 1981 by Chapman and Hall Ltd 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Published in the USA by Chapman and Hall in association with Methuen, Inc. 733 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 1974, 1981 H. S. Bachelard ISBN-13: 978-0-412-23470-5 This paperback edition is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted, or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means. now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Bachelard, Herman Stanton Brain biochemistry. - 2nd ed. - (Outline studies in biology). 1. Brain chemistry I. Title II. Series 599.01 '88 QP376 ISBN-13: 978-0-412-23470-5 DOl: 10.1007/978-94-009-5941-5 e-isbn-13:978-94-009-5941-5
Contents I Introduction 7 1.1 Regional cerebral metabolism 8 1.2 Cerebral requirements for glucose and oxygen 9 References 10 2 Appearance of the brain 11 2.1 Gross appearance II 2.2 Fluid compartments 13 2.3 Microscopic appearance 14 2.3.1 Neurones 15 2.3.2 Glial cells 16 2.3.3 The synapse 17 References 21 3 Neurotransmission 21 3.1 The resting potential 21 3.2 The sodium pump 23 3.3 The action potential and nerve conduction 24 3.4 Chemical events at the synapse 26 3.4.1 Identification and occurrence of neurotransmitters 28 3.4.2 The quantum hypothesis 32 3.4.3 Metabolism of acetylcholine 34 3.4.4 Catecholamines: noradrenaline and dopamine 37 3.4.5 5-Hydroxytryptamine 38 3.4.6 Breakdown of the biogenic amines 39 3.4.7 Metabolism of the neuroactive amino acids 40 3.4.8 The neuroactive peptides 40 3.5 Origin of synaptic vesicles 41 3.6 Post-synaptic events 42 3.6.1 Involvement of cyclic nucleotides 44 3.6.2 Receptors 46 3.7 Neurone-axonal transport 48 3.7.1 Mechanism of transport in axoplasmic flow 49 3.7.2 Axonal protein synthesis 50 References 51 4 Adaptive processes in the brain 54 4.1 Inducible enzymes 54 4.1.1 Adaptation to specific substrates 56 4.1.2 Adaptation to the product of an alternate pathway 61
4.1.3 Adaptation involving coenzyme 4.1.4 Adaptation in response to hormones 4.2 Adaptation to the environment 4.2.1 Light 4.2.2 The pineal gland 4.3 Drug tolerance and dependence 4.3.1 Morphine 4.3.2 Amphetamines 4.3.3 Ethanol 4.4 Learning and memory as adaptive processes? References Index 62 63 65 65 66 68 69 71 74 75 76 79