Energy metabolism in rat brain in vivo studied by 31P nuclear magnetic resonance: changes during postnatal development.

The energy metabolism in rat brains during postnatal development was followed by in vivo 31P NMR. Using a small surface coil (from several to 10 mm in diameter) placed at the head of a conscious rat, high-energy phosphate compounds in the brain and the steady-state kinetics among them were measured. The cellular contents of some phosphate compounds changed widely during the period of postnatal cell growth from age 10 to 20 days. During the same period, the cellular activity of creatine kinase increased by a factor of more than 5 as measured by a saturation transfer technique. The in vivo value of the creatine/creatine phosphate ratio was estimated from the in vitro value (in perchloric acid extracts), assuming that the in vivo ratio of the creatine and creatine phosphate pool over the ATP and ADP pool was the same as the corresponding in vitro value. From the creatine/creatine phosphate ratio thus obtained, the value of the cytosolic ATP/ADP ratio was estimated for brains of adult rats and neonate rats. Unexpectedly the value in the latter was found to be smaller.