Regional cerebral incorporation of plasma [14C]palmitate, and cerebral glucose utilization, in water-deprived Long-Evans and Brattleboro rats.

Regional rates of incorporation into brain of intravenously administered [14C]palmitate and regional cerebral metabolic rates for glucose (rCMRglc) were measured in water-provided (WP) and water-deprived (WD) homozygous (DI) and heterozygous (HZ) Brattleboro rats, a mutant strain unable to synthesize vasopressin, and in the parent Long-Evans (LE) strain. Following 15 h or 4 days of water deprivation, rCMRglc was elevated threefold in the pituitary neural lobe of LE-WD and DI-WD as compared with LE-WP rats, and in the paraventricular nucleus of LE-WD, and the supraoptic nucleus of DI-WD rats. However, incorporation of [14C]palmitate into these regions was not specifically altered. The results indicate that water deprivation for up to 4 days increases rCMRglc in some brain regions involved with vasopressin, but does not alter [14C]palmitate incorporation into these regions. Incorporation of plasma [14C]palmitate is independent of unlabeled plasma palmitate at brain regions which have an intact blood-brain barrier, but at nonbarrier regions falls according to saturation kinetics as cold plasma concentration rises, with a mean half-saturation constant (Km) equal to 0.136 mumol.ml-1.