N-acetylaspartate (NAA) is a highly abundant brain metabolite. Aberrant NAA concentrations have been detected in many pathological conditions and although the function of NAA has been extensively investigated in the brain it is still controversial. Only recently, a role of NAA has been reported outside the brain. In brown adipocytes, which show high expression of the NAA-producing and the NAA-c...

BACKGROUND Clinical assessment is insensitive to the degree of cerebral involvement in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Regional brain concentrations N-acetylaspartylglutamate (NAA) plus myo-inositol (Ins), as measured by magnetic resonance spectroscopy, are respectively decreased and increased, suggesting that these compounds may provide a biomarker of the degree of cerebral involvement in...

It is unclear whether N-acetylaspartate (NAA) depletions documented in schizophrenia patients might be due to the disease progression or medications. Here we investigated longitudinal NAA changes in drug-naïve first-episode patients (FEP) who are relatively free from chronicity. Forty-two drug-naïve FEP and 38 controls were enrolled in this study to explore the effect of 8-week risperidone mono...

A rapid and efficient in vitro propagation protocol of Acorus calamus L. an important endangered medicinal plant has been developed. Naturally grown rhizome segments were used as explants for initial culture. Surface sterilized rhizome segments were cultured on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with various concentrations (0.5 mg l 3.0 mg l ) of cytokinins (BAP, Kn) and auxins (IAA, ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Despite the prominent peak of N-acetylaspartate (NAA) in proton MR spectroscopy ((1)H-MR spectroscopy) of the adult brain and its almost exclusive presence in neuronal cells, the total amount of NAA, regarded as their marker, is difficult to obtain due to signal contamination from the skull lipids. This article compares the performance of 2 methods that overcome this diff...

The aim of this study was to correlate magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) measurements, including that for the N-acetyl aspartate (NAA)/creatine (Cr) ratio in the vermis (denoted V-NAA), right cerebellar hemisphere (R-NAA), and left (L-NAA) cerebellar hemisphere, with the clinical scale for the assessment and rating of ataxia (SARA) score for patients with spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) types ...

PURPOSE To study the value of different parameters derived from single-voxel proton MR spectroscopy of the mesial temporal lobes in the lateralization of the epileptogenic zone in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy. METHODS We studied 12 healthy volunteers and 21 patients with temporal lobe epilepsy refractory to medical treatment, which was clearly lateralized with electroencephalography (...

Guidelines for the use of nucleic acid amplification (NAA) tests for the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) were published in 1996 and updated in 2000. Since then, NAA testing has become a routine procedure in many settings because NAA tests can reliably detect Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria in specimens 1 or more weeks earlier than culture. Earlier laboratory confirmation of TB can lead to ea...

OBJECTIVE In the present study, we measured hippocampal N-acetyl-l-aspartate (NAA), choline (CHO) and creatine (CRE) values in patients with panic disorder and healthy control subjects using in vivo(1)H MRS. METHODS We scanned 20 patients meeting Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV (DSM-IV) criteria for panic disorder and 20 matched healthy controls with a 1.5 Tesla GE Si...

A micropropagation protocol was developed which may assist in the safeguarding and augmentation of dwindling natural populations of Clinopodium odorum (Griseb.) Harley, a critically and endangered medicinal plant. Factors affecting culture initiation bud sprouting and growth, rooting, and acclimatization were studied, using nodal segments of in vitro germinated seedling as primary explants on s...