Guerra-Romero L, Tureen J H, Fournier M A, Makrides V, Täuber M G
Infectious Diseases Laboratories, San Francisco General Hospital, California.
Pediatr Res. 1993 May;33(5):510-3. doi: 10.1203/00006450-199305000-00018.
Excitatory amino acids are increasingly implicated in the pathogenesis of neuronal injury induced by a variety of CNS insults, such as ischemia, trauma, hypoglycemia, and epilepsy. Little is known about the role of amino acids in causing CNS injury in bacterial meningitis. Several amino acids were measured in cerebrospinal fluid and in microdialysis samples from the interstitial fluid of the frontal cortex in a rabbit model of pneumococcal meningitis. Cerebrospinal fluid concentrations of glutamate, aspartate, glycine, taurine, and alanine increased significantly in infected animals. Among the amino acids with known excitatory or inhibitory function, interstitial fluid concentrations of glutamate were significantly elevated (by 470%). Alanine, a marker for anaerobic glycolysis, also increased in the cortex of infected rabbits. The elevated glutamate concentrations in the brain extracellular space suggest that excitotoxic neuronal injury may play a role in bacterial meningitis.
兴奋性氨基酸越来越多地被认为与多种中枢神经系统损伤（如缺血、创伤、低血糖和癫痫）所诱导的神经元损伤发病机制有关。关于氨基酸在细菌性脑膜炎导致中枢神经系统损伤中的作用，人们所知甚少。在肺炎球菌性脑膜炎兔模型中，对脑脊液以及额叶皮质间质液的微透析样本中的几种氨基酸进行了测量。感染动物脑脊液中的谷氨酸、天冬氨酸、甘氨酸、牛磺酸和丙氨酸浓度显著升高。在具有已知兴奋或抑制功能的氨基酸中，间质液中的谷氨酸浓度显著升高（升高了470%）。丙氨酸是无氧糖酵解的标志物，在感染兔子的皮质中也有所增加。脑细胞外空间中谷氨酸浓度的升高表明，兴奋性毒性神经元损伤可能在细菌性脑膜炎中起作用。
