Effect of vincamine on some enzymatic activities from various areas of the beagle dog cerebral cortex

The effect of a chronic (3 months) treatment with vincamine on the enzymatic activities related to energy transduction was studied on several areas of the cerebral cortex of dog brain. About enzymatic activities of the four different cortical areas, in controls, no difference was observed between the enzymatic activities evaluated in the crude mitochondrial fraction, with regard to both the tricarboxylic acid cycle (citrate synthase, malate dehydrogenase) and the electron transport chain (total NADH-cytochrome c reductase, cytochrome oxidase). On the contrary, in the homogenate, lactate dehydrogenase, malate dehydrogenase and acetylcholine esterase showed different maximal activities. In the crude mitochondrial fraction the intravenous treatment with the three different doses of vincamine failed to cause any significant change as compared to controls. On the contrary, with regard to the enzymatic activities evaluated in the homogenate in toto, the analysis of variance revealed an effect on cytochrome oxidase at the dose of 3 mg/kg intravenously