ABSTRACT
The administration of large doses of the dicarboxylic amino acids glutamate and aspartate produces hypothalamic neuronal necrosis in the infant rodent. Large amounts of monosodium L-glutamate administered to neonatal mice result in retinal and brain lesions. The brain of the infant nonhuman primate more closely resembles that of the human infant than that of the infant mouse. After dosing, each infant was observed constantly for 4 hr, so that vomiting, respiratory difficulties, cyanosis, or other problems could be observed. If a monkey regurgitated, it was observed until vomiting ceased and then redosed with the estimated volume of solution regurgitated. Because of localized regions of vasoconstriction, it is virtually impossible to perfuse a brain as large as that of the infant monkey with glutaraldehyde so as to achieve high-quality fixation throughout. At the electron-microscopic level, there were no differences between experimental and control brain sections.
