| RESEARCH |
SCOTT A. SHIPPY, an assistant chemistry professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago, is trying to breathe new life into a technique known as push-pull perfusion, which had fallen out of favor because the large probes required high flow rates and poked holes in the brain. Push-pull probes consist of concentric cylinders. An infusion solution enters through a longer inner cylinder, and the sample is recovered through a shorter outer cylinder. Shippy needed to miniaturize the probes and reduce the flow rate used in push-pull perfusion. He is currently using flow rates of 10 to 15 nL per minute. He also switched the cylinders so that infusion is through the outer cylinder and recovery is through the inner cylinder. In his setup, the inner and outer cylinders end at the same place, which may provide better spatial resolution, he said. Shippy used the new probes to measure the neurotransmitter glutamate in rats. The basal glutamate values that he measured matched those in the literature, he said. In addition, the probe caused no detectable tissue damage. |
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