Microdialysis/Mass Spectrometry

Elucidation of the biochemistry of neurochemicals in the live animal has traditionally involved the sampling of blood, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and tissue from brain biopsy. Many other experimental studies of brain chemistry have been conducted with postmortem tissue, giving a poor representation of the dynamic chemistry that exists between cells and the interchange of compounds between cells and extracellular fluid. Total tissue levels may easily mask small but important neurochemical changes in specific brain regions. For these reasons, investigators have turned to techniques that directly sample the extracellular compartment of nervous tissue in living animals.