PEDIATRICS Vol. 39 No. 3 March 1967, pp. 463-464
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow P3Rs: Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when P3Rs are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow E-mail this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My File Cabinet
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via CrossRef
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by DIAMOND, I.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by DIAMOND, I.

Letters to the Editor

IVAN DIAMOND M.D.1

1 Department of Biological Chemistry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts

It is, of course, well-known that the newborn guinea pig has a relatively mature central nervous system but this may have little to do with the functional characteristics of the blood-brain barrier for bilirubin and other organic compounds. For example, although the maturing brain of guinea pigs, mice, rats, cats, and humans shows marked metabolic differences, in these mammals a number of substances are regularly excluded from the brain at all stages of development. Thus, despite species differences and "the changing metabolic pattern of a given specie" the blood-brain barrier for certain compounds is functionally intact in the fetus, newborn, and adult.