The Passage of Tritiated Piperidine into the Central Ganglia and Other Tissues of the Snail

Abstract

A long-lasting distribution of exogenous piperidine in snails with reduced excretion was studied. The doses of tritiated piperidine used here elevated the reported endogenous concentrations by 3% to 300%. During the two-month experiment the exogenous piperidine was not appreciably metabolized. The central ganglia were found to be among the organs with the lowest concentration of exogenous piperidine. They contained significantly less labeled piperidine than the liver, kidney, heart, foot, albumen gland, mantle and intestine. The concentration of exogenous piperidine in the central ganglia increased with time, after 16 days reaching about twice the initial concentration found on the first day after administration. There was a blood-brain barrier for piperidine in the snail, maintaining about five times higher concentration in the blood for more than two months. The origin of endogenous piperidine in the snail central ganglia is discussed using the data on distribution of exogenous piperidine.

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Notes on contributors

Hana Dolezalova

Joyce Laing works in the Department of Child and Family Psychiatry, Playfield House, Cupar, Fife, and is a Consultant Art Therapist to Psychiatric Hospitals and Prisons and Chairwoman of the Scottish Society of Art and Psychology