High-Energy Phosphates in Brain from Dissected Freeze-Dried Regions to Single Cells

The successful measurement of cerebral high-energy phosphates (ATP, ADP, AMP, and phosphocreatine) by the enzymatic techniques to be described in this chapter is dependent on: (1) adequate tissue fixation, (2) preparation, dissection, and weighing of samples to be analyzed, and (3) fluorometric enzymatic analysis of the sample for high-energy phosphates. The fact that the brain is organized in a highly complex fashion necessitates the measurement of metabolites in very small pieces of tissue, down to and including single cells. Therefore, the methodology for dissection, weighing, and analysis of tissue varies to some extent with the size of the sample.