Feasibility of continuous glutamate monitoring in perfused retinal tissue with a potentiometric biosensing probe

Glutamate measured by 6-s resolution brain microdialysis: capillary electrophoretic and laser-induced fluorescence detection application

In the present experiment the combination of brain microdialysis and CZE-LIFD permitted the measurement of glutamate in 100 nl microdialysis samples collected every 5 or 6 s. Samples were collected every 6 s, in rats anesthetized with two different anesthetic agents (ketamine and sodium thiopental). A microdialysis probe was inserted in the cortex of an anesthetized rat in the territory irrigated by the middle cerebral artery. The artery was clamped for 30 s and then released. The samples were derivatized with fluorescein isothiocyanate I (FITC) by means of a continuous-flow reactor, collected and injected into a home-made CZE-LIFD instrument. Glutamate decreased immediately after clamping the artery in ketamine anesthetized rats and increased 1 min after the onset of the ischemia in sodium thiopental anesthetized rats. In another experiment a 60 mM KCl solution was injected through a microdialysis probe inserted in the hippocampus of an anesthetized rat. In the first 5 s after the KCl solution reached the tissue, glutamate increased but gamma-aminobutytic acid and glutamine did not. The experiments show that time resolution of brain microdialysis can be reduced to a few seconds if the analytical technique is the proper one.

Determination of glutamic acid decarboxylase activity and inhibition by an H2O2-sensing glutamic acid oxidase biosensor

The catalytic activity of the enzyme L-glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) is determined by an amperometric method based on a recently developed glutamate-selective biosensor. The biosensor is composed of an amperometric H2O2 electrode and a biocatalytic membrane containing the enzyme glutamic acid oxidase (GAO). The biosensor allows the direct and continuous measurement of GA levels by monitoring the H2O2 produced at the electrode interface as a coproduct of the GAO-catalyzed GA oxidation to alpha-ketoglutaric acid. Since GA is transformed to gamma-aminobutyric acid and CO2 under the catalytic activity of GAD, the rate of GA consumption in solution, monitored by the GAO biosensor, represents a reliable measure of GAD catalytic activity. Additional experiments performed in the presence of different concentrations of the GAD inhibitor valproic acid have shown the suitability of the proposed approach for the study of GAD inhibitors also. Discussion of the main experimental characteristics of this new analytical method is given in terms of sensitivity, reproducibility, and reliability of the experimental results and ease, time, and cost of operation.