[Changes in brain metabolites under combined mild-hypothermia and isoflurane anesthesia in rat with temporal brain...

The significance of mild-hypothermia as a treatment of brain ischemia-induced neuronal cell death was investigated by measurement of hippocampul excitatory amino acids, brain lactate and energy-charge just after 10 min of transient forebrain ischemia in a rat model with four vessels occluded. After 10 min of ischemia, cerebral circulation was restored. At that time, in the control group transient increases of hippocampul aspartate and glutamic acid levels were observed. Furthermore, brain lactate levels were also elevated but the energy-charge was reduced. These significant changes were observed in the non-isoflurane anesthesia and mild-hypothermia rats (control group). However, in rats with treatment of either isoflurane or mild-hypothermia, the excessive amount of amino acids and the significant fluctuation of brain metabolic/energy pathway seen in the control group were suppressed. Particularly, in the combined treatment group, these increased and decreased phenomena induced by brain ischemia were significantly inhibited. In a group of pre- and post-treatment of mild-hypothermia, the maximum peak of lactate was significantly less than that seen in the control group, although the sustained increased level of lactate was detected. These results indicate that the combined treatment with isoflurane anesthesia and mild-hypothermia is a suitable treatment for the brain dysfunction induced by ischemia and that the sustained hypothermia may help restore brain lactate levels after brain ischemia because of the lasting anaerobic metabolism.