SMALL RISES IN PLASMA CHOLINE REVERSE THE NEGATIVE ARTERIOVENOUS DIFFERENCE OF BRAIN CHOLINE

Abstract: The concentrations of free choline in blood plasma from a peripheral artery and from the transverse sinus, in the CSF, and in total brain homogenate, have been measured in untreated rats and in rats after acute intraperitoneal administration of choline chloride. In untreated rats, the arteriovenous difference of brain choline was related to the arterial choline level. At low arterial blood levels (<10 μM) as observed under fasting conditions, the arteriovenous difference was negative (about ‐2 μM), indicating a net release of choline from the brain of about 1.6 nmol/g/min. In rats with spontaneously high arterial blood levels (> 15 μM), the arteriovenous difference was positive, implying a marked net uptake of choline by the brain (3.1 nmol/g/min). The CSF choline concentration, which reflects changes in the extracellular choline concentration, also increased with increasing plasma levels and closely paralleled the gradually rising net uptake. Acute administration of 6, 20, or 60 mg of choline chloride/kg caused, in a dose‐dependent manner, a sharp rise of the arterial blood levels and the CSF choline, and reversed the arteriovenous difference of choline to markedly positive values. The total free choline in the brain rose only initially and to a quantitatively negligible extent. Thus, the amount of choline taken up by the brain within 30 min was stored almost completely in a metabolized form and was sufficient to sustain the release of choline from the brain as long as the plasma level remained low. We conclude that the extracellular choline concentration of the brain closely parallels fluctuations in the plasma level of choline. Moreover, the often described release of choline from the brain as reflected by the negative arteriovenous difference of brain choline is not a steady‐state phenomenon. Instead, the uptake of choline into and the release of choline from the brain seem to be in dynamic equilibrium that is closely related to the plasma choline level and, consequently, to nutritional choline uptake. Copyright © 1990, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved