Streptozotocin‐induced diabetes in rats reduces brain tryptophan but is without effect on the central levels of 5‐hydroxytryptamine (5‐HT) or 5‐hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5‐HIAA). The present work investigates the effect of diabetes on the accumulation of brain tryptophan, 5‐HT and 5‐HIAA in various brain regions following a systemic tryptophan load. The results indicate that diabetes severely restricts the uptake of tryptophan by brain but that the tryptophan that is accumulated is normally converted to 5‐HT and 5‐HIAA. Possible mechanisms which might explain the apparent resistance of 5‐HT metabolism to decreased precursor levels in diabetics are discussed.
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MacKenzie et al. (1978) studied this question.
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