Ammonia intoxication: effects on cerebral cortex and spinal cord.

The effect of an acute systemic ammonia intoxication on the metabolic states of the cerebral cortex and the spinal cord of the same animal was studied in the cat. The intravenous infusion of ammonium acetate (2 and 4 mmol/kg body weight/30 min) increased the gross levels of tissue NH4+, glutamine, glutamine/glutamate ratio, lactate, and the lactate/pyruvate ratio in the cerebral cortex and the spinal cord. Pyruvate increased, but significantly only in the spinal cord; aspartate decreased, but significantly only in the cerebral cortex. The infusion of ammonium acetate did not significantly change the levels of phosphocreatine, ATP, ADP, AMP, total adenine nucleotides, adenylate energy charge, glucose, glutamate, alpha-ketoglutarate, and malate in either tissue. The changes of NH4+, glutamine, and lactate levels as well as glutamine/glutamate and lactate/pyruvate ratios in the spinal cord correlated significantly with the corresponding changes of these metabolites in the cerebral cortex. Thus, cerebral cortex and spinal cord show certain specific and comparable metabolic changes in response to a systemic ammonia intoxication. The effect of ammonia intoxication on the increases of glutamine and lactate levels is discussed.