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Reduced Locomotor Activity of Rats Made Histidinemic by Injection of Histidine¹

Departamento de Bioquímica, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, 90050, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil

Acute histidinemia was provoked in 30-d-old male Wistar rats by injecting intraperitoneally either histidine alone (0.5 mg/g body wt) or histidine (0.25 mg/g body wt) plus the histidase inhibitor nitromethane (0.73 mg/g body wt). Histidase activity was approximately 90% inhibited in rats receiving nitromethane. Serum histidine in both groups reached levels similar to those of histidinemic patients. Rats were subjected to the open field behavioral task, and the number of rearings and crossings were counted. A consistently lower locomotor activity was observed in the histidinemic rats. It is proposed that reduced locomotor activity and its relationship to psychomotor development should be investigated in histidinemic children.

KEY WORDS: • experimental histidinemia • histidine • nitromethane • locomotor activity • rats • open field behavioral task

¹ This work was supported by Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (FINEP), Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnológico (CNPq) and Pró-Reitoria de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação/Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (PROPESP/UFRGS), Brazil.

Manuscript received 28 March 1988. Revision accepted 10 April 1989.