A high cellular concentration of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is essential to fuel many important functions of brain astrocytes. Although cellular ATP depletion has frequently been reported for astrocytes, little is known on the metabolic pathways that contribute to ATP restoration by ATP-depleted astrocytes. Incubation of cultured primary rat astrocytes in glucose-free buffer for 60 min with the mitochondrial uncoupler BAM15 lowered the cellular ATP content by around 70%, the total amount of adenosine phosphates by around 50% and the adenylate energy charge (AEC) from 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe glucose analogue 2-deoxyglucose (2DG) has frequently been used as a tool to study cellular glucose uptake and to inhibit glycolysis. Exposure of primary cultured astrocytes to 2DG caused a time- and concentration-dependent cellular accumulation of 2-deoxyglucose-6-phosphate (2DG6P) that was accompanied by a rapid initial decline in cellular ATP content. Inhibitors of mitochondrial respiration as well as inhibitors of mitochondrial uptake of pyruvate and activated fatty acids accelerated the ATP loss, demonstrating that mitochondrial ATP regeneration contributes to the partial maintenance of the ATP content in 2DG-treated astrocytes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe presence of CECs in aquatic systems has raised significant concern since they are potentially harmful to the environment and human health. Eliminating CECs has led to the development of alternatives to treat wastewater, such as advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). The ultraviolet-mediated activation of monochloramine (UV/NHCl) is a novel and relatively unexplored AOPs for treating pollutants in wastewater systems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis review discusses the research being performed on ionic liquids for the separation of fluorocarbon refrigerant mixtures. Fluorocarbon refrigerants, invented in 1928 by Thomas Midgley Jr., are a unique class of working fluids that are used in a variety of applications including refrigeration.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBrain astrocytes are well known for their broad metabolic potential. After glucose deprivation, cultured primary astrocytes maintain a high cellular ATP content for many hours by mobilizing endogenous substrates, but within 24 h the specific cellular ATP content was lowered to around 30% of the initial ATP content. This experimental setting was used to test for the potential of various exogenous substrates to prevent a loss in cellular ATP in glucose deprived astrocytes.
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