ABSTRACT
Radiotracer labeling should employ dedicated incubation chambers to ensure proper radiation safety and containment. The analysis of radiotracer kinetics in brain slices may follow one of two approaches, both of which assume that the kinetic parameters remain constant throughout the course of the experiment and that the concentration of tracer is sufficiently low to ensure that rate constants are independent of tracer concentration. The large number of slices generated from a single animal and the ease of access for rapid freezing make brain slices very convenient for kinetic analysis. A primary motivation for using brain slices is the ease of selectively altering the extracellular environment of the tissue. Excess influx of calcium into neurons and glia contributes to ischemic and excitotoxic brain injury. The validity of the brain slice model depends upon its resemblance to the conditions present in brain in vivo.
