Lysophosphatidic Acid Reduces Microregional Oxygen Supply/Consumption Balance after Cerebral Ischemia-Reperfusion

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a small phospholipid-signaling molecule, which can alter responses to stress in the central nervous system.

We hypothesized that exogenous LPA would increase the size of infarct and reduce microregional O2 supply/consumption balance after cerebral ischemia-reperfusion.

This was tested in isoflurane-anesthetized rats with middle cerebral artery blockade for 1 h and reperfusion for 2 h with or without LPA (1 mg/kg, at 30, 60, and 90 min after reperfusion). Regional cerebral blood flow was determined using a C14-iodoantipyrine autoradiographic technique. Regional small-vessel (20-60 µm in diameter) arterial and venous oxygen saturations were determined microspectrophotometrically.

There were no significant hemodynamic or arterial blood gas differences between groups. The control ischemic-reperfused cortex had a similar O2 consumption to the contralateral cortex. However, microregional O2 supply/consumption balance was significantly reduced in the ischemic-reperfused cortex with many areas of low O2 saturation (43 of 80 veins with O2 saturation below 50%). LPA did not significantly alter cerebral blood flow, but it did significantly increase O2 extraction and consumption of the ischemic-reperfused region. It also significantly increased the number of small veins with low O2 saturations in the reperfused region (76 of 80 veins with O2 saturation below 50%). This was associated with a significantly increased cortical infarct size after LPA administration (11.4 ± 0.5% control vs. 16.4 ± 0.6% LPA).

This suggests that LPA reduces cell survival and that it is associated with an increase in the number of small microregions with reduced local oxygen balance after cerebral ischemia-reperfusion.