A Simple Densitometric Method for the Quantification of Inhibitory Neurotransmitter Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA) in Rat Brain Tissue

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is the major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the mammalian central nervous system which is involved in various physiological and pathological processes. The present study demonstrates a simple high-performance thin-layer chromatography (HPTLC) method which was developed for the estimation of GABA in rat brain tissue. The method was validated in terms of precision, recovery, reproducibility, and variability. Instrumental precision was found to be 0.5891% CV and reproducibility of the method was found to be 0.4141% CV. Interday and intraday precision of the method was found to be 0.9453% and 1.3236% CV, respectively. Accuracy of the method was checked by the recovery study, and the average recovery of GABA was found to be 97.98% at 40 ng and 96.15% at 80 ng levels. The present HPTLC method for GABA estimation was found to be simple, precise, reproducible, sensitive, and accurate. No doubt, this proposed method will be a useful tool for the estimation of GABA in rat brain tissue.