Changes in extracellular glutamate concentration produced in the rat striatum by repeated ischemia

Evidence suggesting that ischemia-induced neuronal damage may be linked to an extracellular overflow of glutamate has accumulated, and previous studies have shown that repetitive ischemic insults may have a cumulative effect. The purpose of this study was to investigate changes in the extracellular glutamate concentration produced by repeated brief ischemic episodes of varied severity.

Four consecutive 3- or 5-minute periods of bilateral hemispheric ischemia were produced in rats, each ischemic period followed by 27 minutes of reperfusion. Extracellular glutamate in the striatum was monitored using microdialysis, and the electroencephalogram and extracellular direct current potential were recorded in the same tissue site to assess the severity of ischemia.

The results suggest that the kinetics of the increase in the extracellular glutamate concentration produced by a brief ischemic episode are similar, irrespective of whether it is a single insult or part of a repeated sequence. In all cases, the extracellular glutamate concentration increased throughout ischemia and returned to its preischemic level early during reperfusion. The pattern of changes in the ischemia-induced glutamate overflow during repetitive insults varied with the severity of ischemia, in common with the pattern of changes in the direct current potential, supporting the concept that ionic changes associated with anoxic depolarization are a major determinant of ischemia-induced glutamate overflow.

There may be no cumulative effect of brief repeated episodes of ischemia on the extracellular glutamate concentration, even though repeated 5-minute ischemic episodes apparently caused progressive deterioration of ionic homeostasis in some cases.