Effects of glyoxal or methylglyoxal on the metabolism of amino acids, lactate, glucose and acetate in the cerebral cortex of young and adult rats

The in vitro effects of glyoxal and methylglyoxal on the metabolism of glycine, alanine, leucine, glutamate, glutamine, glucose, lactate and acetate were evaluated in cortico-cerebral slices from young (10-day-old) or adult (3-month-old) rats. In a first set of experiments with cortico-cerebral slices from young animals, the compounds glyoxal or methylglyoxal at 400 μM, increased the oxidation of alanine, leucine and glycine to CO2 and decreased the protein synthesis from these amino acids. Lipid synthesis from alanine, leucine and glycine was not changed in the cortico-cerebral slices from young rats after glyoxals exposure. Moreover, glutamine oxidation to CO2 decreased by glyoxals exposure, but glutamate oxidation was not affected. In a second set of experiments with brain slices from adult animals, glycine metabolism (oxidation to CO2, conversion to lipids or incorporation into proteins) was not changed by glyoxals exposure. In addition, the oxidation rates of glucose, lactate, acetate, glutamine and glutamate to CO2 were also not modified. Taken together, these results indicate that glyoxal disrupts the energetic metabolism of the rat cerebral cortex in vitro. However, only young animals were susceptible to such events, suggesting that the immature cerebral cortex is less capable of dealing with glyoxal than the mature one.