Identification and Quantification of Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid in Human Cerebrospinal Fluid by Gas Chromatography- Mass Spectrometry

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is regarded as a putative neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. Many investigators have made attempts to detect GABA in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), Perry etal. (1) analysed CSF with an aminoacid analyser using ninhydrin for detection of amino compounds. In this study GABA was found to be consistently absent in CSF. In other studies (2, 3) an enzymatic-fluorometric assay was used for the detection of GABA. In patients with no organic neurological disease no GABA was found in the CSF, although the assay used in these studies permitted the detection of GABA at a concentration of 100 pg per assay tube. In some neurological diseases GABA levels were detected in the range of 0–100 ng per ml of CSF.