Effects of hypothermia and hyperthermia on brain energy metabolism

The influence of elevated and reduced body temperatures upon the metabolic state of the brain was evaluated from the tissue concentrations of phosphocreatine (PCr) ATP, ADP and AMP and from the concentrations of glucose, lactate and pyruvate in immobilized and artificially ventilated rats anesthetized with 70% N2O. The results were compared to the results obtained in normothermic animals. It was found that rats with body temperatures of 32 degrees and 22 degrees C had the same brain tissue concentrations of high energy phosphates and the same adenylate energy charge as the controls, but hypothermia led to a progressive decrease of both cerebral and arterial lactate and pyruvate concentrations. A metabolic acidosis but no excess lactate appeared in the blood. At a body temperature of 42 degrees C, the metabolic pattern in the brain agreed with a state of hypoxia at a time when there was no sign of substrate depletion. Arterial blood showed excess lactate which may indicate an inadequacy of the oxygen supply also to other tissues.