Regional distribution of homocarnosine, homocarnosine-carnosine synthetase and homocarnosinase in human brain
Laboratory studyHumans
- Design
- Laboratory study
- What was measured
- Homocarnosine and carnosine content, synthetase and homocarnosinase activity across regions of autopsied human brain and temporal cortex biopsies.
What the authors reported
Homocarnosine varied about six-fold by region, highest in dentate nucleus and inferior olive, lowest in caudate and mesolimbic regions. Carnosine was essentially absent except in the olfactory bulb. Synthetase activity in temporal cortex was about ten times that reported for rat cortex (Km 1.8 mM for beta-alanine, 8.8 mM for GABA) and fell quickly after death, while homocarnosinase stayed stable for at least 6 h.
Limits of this study
Post-mortem tissue; number of brains not stated in abstract. Full text not read. PubMed record carries no abstract, so findings could not be rechecked against PubMed.
Source
PubMed 448355 · doi:10.1111/j.1471-4159.1979.tb02272.x
Entry checked against PubMed record (title and citation only, no abstract); findings from OpenAlex abstract on 2026-10-19. The dose shown is the dose the researchers used. It is not a recommendation. How to read this page.