ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the major techniques that employ radiotracers for the measurement of glucose transport and metabolism by the mammalian brain. The kinetics of glucose transport and of certain analogs across the blood-brain barrier has been measured by use of a water reference technique in the anesthetized rat. The brain is a highly complex and heterogeneous organ with a variety of structural and functional components, it has been of interest to measure the rate of glucose utilization as an indicator of functional activity. The studies have shown that these different structures can independently regulate the levels of functional activity and energy metabolism and that these processes are closely linked. Although the methods discussed above have provided much of what is known about brain glucose metabolism. These techniques are limited to use in experimental animals, since sacrifice of the animal is necessary to determine the distribution of radioactivity either in the whole brain or in brain sections employing autoradiographic techniques.
