[Brain ischemia and endothelial cell damage--immunohistochemical study using factor VIII related antigen as a marker]

As brain capillaries do various works necessary for maintaining the homeostasis of neurons, their disruptions may play an important role in the establishment of ischemic brain damage. It is also said that brain capillaries response to ischemia more functionally than structurally and their microstructural features remain unchanged for a long time of ischemia. Therefore, a new method is expected to be introduced that can evaluate the ischemic changes of endothelial cells on a histological level more sensitively than conventional histological methods. In the present study we investigated immunohistochemical reactivity of factor VIII related antigen (F VIII RAg), a specific and representative marker of vascular endothelial cells, in normal and ischemic brains. In the experiment, cerebral ischemia was induced by occlusion of the unilateral common carotid artery in adult mongolian gerbils. The periods of occlusion were 1, 2, 3, 6, 12, and 24 hours, in five animals respectively. After occlusion each brain was obtained by decapitation and quickly frozen at -80 degrees C and 5-6 micron sections were cut in a cryostat at -20 degrees C and dried at 37 degrees C. The staining for F VIII RAg was done by the peroxidase-antiperoxidase method using specific antiserum to human F VIII RAg. In normal gerbil's brains, the positive staining for F VIII RAg was observed in endothelial cells of arteries, veins and capillaries. In major vessels the staining was intense, but neurons and glia were not stained.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)