Hydrostatic pressure versus osmotic pressure in the development of vasogenic brain edema induced by cold injury

The role of hydrostatic pressure and osmotic pressure gradient in the development of vasogenic brain edema induced by cold lesion made in the parietal cortex was studied in cats under ketamine anesthesia and blood pressure monitoring. The animals were divided into a hypertensive group and a normotensive group and were kept alive for 6 hr. The brain was removed and cut coronally at the lesion for tissue sampling from various areas of edematous white matter to measure both the SG and the amount of extravasated serum albumin in the same samples. Our result showed that the edema confined in the area containing extravasated serum albumin and the increase of water content correlated linearly with the amount of extravasated serum albumin both in the normotensive group and hypertensive group. However, the slope of the regression line indicated albumin content in the edema fluid was significantly different between the two groups. The slope became lower as the MABP during the experiment became higher, indicating that protein concentration in the edema fluid became lower when hypertension sustained. Thus, both hydrostatic and osmotic pressure gradient regulate the extravascular accumulation of edema fluid in the cold lesion edema.