in the incubation medium were measured. By assessing the difference between initial
and final concentrations of glutamate in the medium, a saturable uptake mechanism was characterized
(Km = 8.2 and Vmax = 9.8 nmol/mg protein/min). This measure was largely sodium- and temperaturedependent,
strongly supporting that the mechanism for concentration decrements is indeed uptake by
high-affinity transporters. Added to this, our results also demonstrated that zinc chloride (an inhibitor
of glutamate/aspartate transporters) evoked a concentration-dependent decrease in glutamate uptake,demonstrating the specificity of our methodology. Overall, the present work characterizes an alternative methodology to evaluate glutamate uptake in nervous tissue using HPLC. This approach could be an important tool for studies associated to the characterization of minute alterations in glutamate transport related with central nervous system injury.