Effect of short-term ammonia inhalation on selected amino acids in rat brain

Increased brain and plasma glutamine after ammonia inhalation had an effect on the concentrations of selected amino acids in rats. Rats inhaled ammonia vapour of 25 and 300 p.p.m. for 5 days 6 hr daily. Brain glutamine increased from the control level, 10.9 +/- 2.6 (S.D.) mumol/g to 15.5 +/- 5.2 (S.D.) mumol/g (P less than 0.05) in 25 p.p.m. NH3 and to 15.3 +/- 1.1 (S.D.) mumol/g (P less than 0.01) in 300 p.p.m. NH3. The blood glutamine was also increased so that the brain/plasma ratio was not changed. A slight elevation in the brain threonine was found, from 0.6 +/- 0.1 (S.D.) mumol/g (controls) to 0.8 +/- 0.2 (S.D.) mumol/g in 25 p.p.m. and to 0.8 +/- 0.1 (S.D.) mumol/g in 300 p.p.m. NH3. The brain/plasma ratio of threonine was increased at the 300 p.p.m. level. The increasing brain threonine linearly correlated to the increased plasma glutamine the general correlation co-efficient being 0.59 according to a linear regression analysis. The effects on other amino acids, e.g., glycine, alanine, serine, aspartate, glutamate, were less clear. It seems that the elevated blood glutamine impaired the threonine export or augmented its uptake from the blood stream. Exposure to NH3 vapour by inhalation proved to be an alternative model to portocaval shunting or urease injections in the study of hyperammonemia in the brain.