THE CEREBELLAR GLOMERULUS: ISOLATION AND METABOLIC PROPERTIES OF A PURIFIED FRACTION

Abstract— A method is described for large scale isolation of glomerular complexes from rabbit cerebellum. The purity of the fraction is 90–95%, measured by quantitative electron microscopy. In addition biochemical markers indicate a high degree of particle integrity. The glomeruli occur as mechanically separable units at 20–40 days of animal age and the amount of protein per particle is 15–20 × 10⁻¹¹ g. The glomeruli accumulate [³H]GABA, and exhibit both high ( K _m 15μM) and low ( K _m 0.5 mM) affinity uptake properties. Glomeruli oxidize α-glycerophosphate and succinate particularly well, while glutamate, pyruvate and α-ketoglutarate are less effective as respiratory substrates.