Hippocampal damage in vitro after different periods of oxygen deprivation

The dynamics and pattern of postanoxic ultrastructural changes in organotypic culture of rat hippocampus was studied. The experiments were performed on 14-day-old cultures of rat hippocampus exposed to pure nitrogen atmosphere for 10- and 20-minutes and processed for electron microscope 2 and 24 h, 3 and 7 days post anoxia. The earliest changes following 10-min anoxia consisted of marked swelling of mitochondria and Golgi complex of neurons. The presynaptic terminals were preferentially affected. The protoplasmic astrocytes revealed swelling of the cytoplasm whereas the fibrous ones were relatively well preserved. Longer, 20-min anoxia resulted in profound ultrastructural changes even after short survival time. The tissue culture model of anoxia allow to study the direct effect of oxygen deprivation on cell morphology independently of any vascular and/or vasogenic factors.