Spectrofluorometric determination of dopamine in small areas of rat brain

Abstract

A method for the extraction and quantification of Dopamine from small areas of rat brain has been developed. The extraction with solvents eliminates the column cromatography separations and allows the simultaneous processing of a good number of samples. Sample retrieval is quite high (70%) and very reproducible. The evaluation was made from areas with a minimal weight of 0.225 g. The quantification of Dopamine was obtained using spectrofluorometric techniques, reading the fluorescence of the trihydroxy indol derivate. The linear relation between the instrument readings and the concentration of Dopamine is from 0 to 0.5 microng/ml. The maximal concentration of Dopamine was found in the decorticated cerebral hemispheres (1.485 microng/g), the next highest values in the diencephalon (1.046 microng/), and the minimal concentration in the cerebellum (0.283 microng/g). The concentration of the whole brain was 0.701 microng/g.