No abstract

Vasogenic brain edema was induced in cats by cold injury (six animals), brain tumors (five animals), and brain abscesses (six animals). Water and electrolyte content, specific gravity, blood volume, and the amount of extravasated serum proteins were determined in small tissue samples taken from gray and white matter at various distances from the lesion. Edema was strictly confined to the white matter of the affected hemisphere and declined from the lesion to the more peripheral regions. It was characterized by the extravasation of serum proteins and an increase of water and sodium content with little or unpredictable changes of potassium and blood volume. The calculated sodium content of edema fluid varied between 129 and 135 mueq/ml, and serum protein content between 8.1 and 11.9 mg/ml. In all three types of edema, specific gravity and water content correlated closely with the same slope and intercept of the calculated regression (y = 1.119-0.0011 x, r = -0.91). The results obtained indicate that the main denominator of specific gravity of edematous white matter is water content and that this relationship is not significantly altered by variations of blood volume or serum protein content.

Recovery of protein synthesis following 1 h of complete ischemia of the monkey brain was assessed by 3H-labeled amino acid incorporation in vivo at various postischemic periods between 1.5 and 24 h. The regional autoradiographic patterns obtained were compared on the basis of precursor-product relationships determined biochemically at the end of the tracer incorporation studies. Shortly after ischemia, protein synthesis was severely inhibited, but it gradually recovered with increasing recirculation times. In the cerebellum it returned to almost normal levels within 3 h and in the cortex within 24 h. Hippocampal and thalamic regions, however, did not recover control levels of protein synthesis at 24 h. His-toautoradiographic evaluation of amino acid incorporation in individual neurons revealed recovery of pyramidal neurons in the CA1 and CA3 sectors of the hippocampus within 6 h of recirculation, which, however, was followed by secondary inhibition after longer recirculation. Neurons in cortical layer 5 steadily recovered to near control within 24 h, with the exception of those located in arterial border zones, which returned to only 50% of control at 24 h. Incomplete recovery was also observed in thalamic neurons and Purkinje cells. The regional and histoauto-radiographic pattern of protein synthesis correlated with the morphological appearance of cells. Ischemic cell changes (mainly of the dark type with microvacuolization and perineuronal glial swelling) were marked after short recirculation times but gradually disappeared in parallel with the return of protein synthesis in most regions of the brain. Only in pyramidal cells of the hippocampus, thalamic neurons, and Purkinje cells were changes not reversed during the observation period. The results obtained corroborate the electrophysiological observations reported in the first part of this investigation and support the notion that the majority of the neurons of monkey brain survive complete cerebrocirculatory arrest of 1 h for at least 1 day.

In anesthetized adult cats, acute stroke was produced by transorbital occlusion of the left middle cerebral artery. A battery of imaging techniques was used for simultaneous evaluation of regional blood flow, glucose utilization, protein synthesis, pH, and the regional tissue content of glucose, ATP, and potassium. The electrophysiological impact of stroke was monitored by EEG frequency analysis and recording of somatosensory evoked potentials. Two hours after vascular occlusion, a close correlation existed between the degree of electrophysiological changes and biochemical alterations, in particular with the extent of tissue acidosis, ATP depletion, decrease of tissue potassium content, and suppression of protein synthesis. However, there was only a poor correlation with blood flow and glucose utilization. Both of these exhibited a greatly inhomogeneous pattern with regions of reduced, normal, or increased rates. In areas remote from the infarct, the content of biochemical substrates was normal but blood flow was reduced globally by ∼50% and glucose utilization by ∼20%. An anatomically defined regional pattern of cerebral or cerebellar diaschisis was not observed. It is concluded that during the acute phase of stroke, imaging of blood flow and glucose utilization does not provide an accurate estimate of the actual functional or metabolic disturbance. For the clinical evaluation of the development or treatment of stroke, in consequence, alternative noninvasive techniques such as imaging of protein synthesis and/or pH may be more relevant.

A biochemical method is described for the simultaneous quantitative estimation of unidirectional blood-brain amino acid influx and protein biosynthesis in individual structures of the rat brain. The method involved a double labeling experiment started by the administration of [14C]carboxyl-labeled amino acids and terminated 2 min after infusion of 3H-labeled amino acids, each at tracer quantities, the total labeling period being 45 min. Specific radioactivities of 14C- or 3H-labeled phenylalanine, tyrosine, leucine, isoleucine, and valine were determined in plasma and in small brain tissue samples for free amino acids, aminoacyl-tRNAs, and proteins. Amino acids were converted to their corresponding 5-dimethylamino-naphthalenesulfonyl (Dns, dansyl) derivatives and separated on HPLC C18 reversed-phase columns isocratically according to a newly developed optimizing procedure. The order of influx values between the neutral amino acids in relation to each other was Leu greater than Tyr greater than Ile greater than Phe greater than Val in every structure examined. Although aminoacylation of tRNAs was found to proceed to a comparable degree for neutral amino acids in all regions investigated, the specific radioactivity of amino acids attached to tRNAs differed substantially from that in the free amino acid pool, especially for leucine and valine. The results indicate the necessity of aminoacyl-tRNA determinations for tracer incorporation studies in protein synthesis analysis. Relative protein synthesis rates in the halothane-anesthetized rat were determined to be 30 and 67-91 pmol total amino acid incorporation/min/mg tissue for white and gray matter, respectively.