160 GENERAL COMMENTS 



Considerations such as the above indicate a delicate balance 

 operating between the levels of the phosphates, the activity of the 

 enzymes involved in their degradation and synthesis and the 

 general metabolic activity of the tissue. Disturbances in this 

 balance may be expected to have a marked effect upon the func- 

 tional activity of nervous tissue and this account by comparing 

 results obtained both in vivo and in vitro has illustrated some of 

 these interconnexions in different ways. It is clear that work, as 

 yet, is proceding only from one end of a reaction sequence, few 

 steps of which are known. It is to be hoped that elucidation of such 

 processes, in leading to an understanding of the way in which 

 metabolic defects produce functional defects will also lead to 

 suitable ways of overcoming them. 



References 



Davies, R. E. and Krebs, H. A. (1952) Symp. Biochem. Soc. No. 8, 77. 



Hebb, C. O. (1957) Physiol. Rev. 37, 196. 



LowRY, O. H. (1957) in Metabolism of the Nervous System, p. 323 (Ed. 



by D. Richter), Pergamon Press, London & New York. 

 Myers, D. K. and Slater, E. C. (1957) Biochem. J. 67, 558. 

 Nachmanson, D. Cox, R. T., Coates, C. W. and Machado, A. L. 



y. Neurophysiol. 6, 383. 

 Richter, D. (1952) Symp. Biochem. Soc. No. 8, 62. 

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