Dopamine beta hydroxylase (DBH) plasma activity in childhood mental disorders.

Background: Developmental study of dopaminergic and noradrenergic systems in child psychiatric disorders are rare. DBH activity is one of noradrenergic biochemical marker that is correlate in psychiatry to clinical and genetic data.

Objectives: The main aim of the present study was to measure DBH activity at the onset of acute schizophrenia and depressive disorder in children and adolescents without pharmacological treatment and to compare these values with DBH activity in healthy controls.

Activity of lactate dehydrogenase in serum and cerebral cortex of immature and mature rats after hypobaric hypoxia.

In our previous studies we have found both an increase of lipid peroxidation damage (expressed as levels of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances) in brain and plasma lactate concentration in 21-day-old rats after a 30-min exposure to hypobaric hypoxia. Pretreatment of rats with L-carnitine decreased both parameters. The aim of our present study was to determine if the L-carnitine-dependent decrease of plasma lactate could be due to a modification of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity.

Hypoxia-induced lipid peroxidation in rat brain and protective effect of carnitine and phosphocreatine.

The exposure to hypobaric hypoxia increased lipid peroxidation as indicated by thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances [TBARS] in rat brain. Plasma lactate/pyruvate ratio was used as a marker of hypoxia. We compared the protective effect of alpha-tocopherol with the effect of L-carnitine or phosphocreatine.