Research Report Ex vivo detection for chronic ethanol consumption-induced neurochemical changes in rats Do-Wan Lee a, b , Sang-Young Kim a, b , Taehyeong Lee c , Yoon-Ki Nam d , Anes Ju e , Dong-Cheol Woo f , Se-Jong You c , Jun-Sung Han d , Sung-Ho Lee c , Chi-Bong Choi g , Sang-Soo Kim h , Hae-Chung Shin d , Hwi-Yool Kim c , Dai-Jin Kim e , i , Hyang-Shuk Rhim h , Bo-Young Choe a, b, ⁎ a Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, South Korea b Research Institute of Biomedical Engineering, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, South Korea c Department of Veterinary Surgery, Konkuk University of Korea, Seoul, South Korea d NMR Research Team & Life Science Group, Agilent Technologies Korea Ltd., Seoul, South Korea e Department of Biomedical Science, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, South Korea f Department of Radiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA g Department of Veterinary Diagnostic Radiology, Dr. PET Animal Medical Center, Seoul, South Korea h Department of Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, South Korea i Department of Psychiatry, Seoul St. Mary's Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, South Korea ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: Accepted 9 October 2011 Available online 15 October 2011 The aim of this study was to quantitatively investigate the chronic ethanol-induced cerebral metabolic changes in various regions of the rat brain, using the proton high resolution magic angle spinning spectroscopy technique. The rats were divided into two groups (control group: N = 11, ethanol-treated group: N = 11) and fed with the liquid diets for 10 weeks. In each week, the mean intake volumes of liquid diet were measured. The brain tissues, including cer- ebellum (Cere), frontal cortex (FC), hippocampus (Hip), occipital cortex (OC) and thalamus (Thal), were harvested immediately after the end of experiments. The ex vivo proton spectra for the five brain regions were acquired with the Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) pulse se- quence at 500-MHz NMR spectrometer. All of the spectra were processed using the LCModel software, with simulated basis-set file, and the metabolite levels were referenced to total cre- atine. In the ethanol liquid diet group, there were significant increases in the metabolites ratio levels, as compared to control (Cere: alanine, glutathione, and N-acetlyaspartate; FC: phos- phocholine and taurine; Hip: alanine, glutamine, and N-acetylaspartate; OC: glutamine; Thal: alanine, γ-aminobutyric acid, glutamate, glycerophosphocholine, phosphocholine, Keywords: Magic angle spinning Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy Cerebral metabolite Chronic ethanol consumption-induced BRAIN RESEARCH 1429 (2012) 134 – 144 ⁎ Corresponding author at: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Research Institute of Biomedical Engineering, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, #505 Banpo-Dong, Seocho-Gu, Seoul 137-701, South Korea. Fax: +82 2 2258 7760. E-mail address: bychoe@catholic.ac.kr (B.-Y. Choe). Abbreviations: MRS, magnetic resonance spectroscopy; NMRS, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy; HR-MAS, high resolution magic angle spinning; DDW, distilled and deionized water; SNR, signal to noise ratio; p.p.m., part per million; CNS, central nervous sys- tem; CPMG, Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill; CRLB, Cramér–Rao lower bound; LCModel, Linear Combination Model; %SD, percentage standard deviation; Ala, alanine; Act, acetate; Asp, aspartate; Cho, choline; Cr, creatine; PCr, phosphocreatine; GABA, gamma-aminobutyric acid; Gln, glutamine, Glu, glutamate; Glc, glucose; GPC, glycerophosphocholine; GSH, glutathione; sI, scyllo-inositol; mI, myo-inositol; Lac, lac- tate; NAA, N-acetylaspartate; NAAG, N-acetylaspartylglutamate; PCh, phosphocholine; Eth, ethanol; Tau, taurine Available online at www.sciencedirect.com www.elsevier.com/locate/brainres 0006-8993/$ – see front matter. Crown Copyright © 2011 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.brainres.2011.10.017