Neuroinflammation and oxidative stress are hallmarks of neurodegenerative diseases. Microglia, the major important regulators of neuroinflammation, are activated in response to excessive generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) from damaged cells and resulting in elevated and sustained damages. However, the relationship between microglia and ROS-regulatory system in the early stages of neuroinflammation prior to the appearance of neuronal damages have not been elucidated in detail. In this study, we analyzed the time-dependent changes in ROS generation during acute neuroinflammation in rats that were given an intrastriatal injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). We evaluated the effects of minocycline, an anti-inflammatory antibiotic, and N,N'-dimethylthiourea (DMTU), a radical scavenger, to understand the correlation between activated microglia and ROS generation. Ex vivo fluorescence imaging using dihydroethidium (DHE) clearly demonstrated an increased ROS level in the infused side of striatum in the rats treated with LPS. The level of ROS was changed in time-dependent manner, and the highest level of ROS was observed on day 3 after the infusion of LPS. Immunohistochemical studies revealed that time-dependent changes in ROS generation were well correlated to the presence of activated microglia. The inhibition of microglial activation by minocycline remarkably reduced ROS levels in the LPS-injected striatum, which indicated that the increased ROS generation caused by LPS was induced by activated microglia. DMTU decreased ROS generation and resulted in remarkable inhibitory effect on microglial activation. This study demonstrated that ROS generation during acute neuroinflammation induced by LPS was considerably associated with microglial activation, in an intact rat brain. The results provides a basis for understanding the interaction of ROS-regulatory system and activated microglia during neuroinflammation underlying neurodegenerative diseases.

For purpose of reducing renal accumulation of radioactivity of a known radiopharmaceutical agent, i.e., 111In-DTPA (diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid)-D-Phe1-octreotide, a derivative in which p-carboxy-L-phenylalanine is substituted for D-Phe1 was synthesized. Biodistribution study of the resultant compound having carboxy-substituted L-Phe1 revealed that the renal accumulation was significantly lower than that of control compound having unsubstituted L-Phe1, demonstrating that the presence of negative charge on the N-terminal amino acid of octreotide is effective to reduce the renal accumulation. This effect can be attributed to the reduction of lipophilicity and also the repulsive force arisen from the negative charge of renal brush border membrane.

The difference in 2-proton's acidity between L _β and L _G led to dramatically different results of their reactions with [ ^99m Tc][Tc(CO) ₃ (OH ₂ ) ₃ ] ⁺ .