Hypoxia preferentially destroys GABAergic neurons in developing rat neocortex explants in culture

The hypothesis that hypoxic ischemia before or during the human birth process preferentially destroys GABAergic nerve cells, particularly in the neocortex, was tested in a tissue culture model system. To that end, rat neocortex explants dissected from 6-day-old rat pups and cultured to a developmental stage approximately comparable to that of the newborn human neocortex were exposed to hypoxia for different periods. Quantitative light microscopic and immunocytochemical evaluation of the cultures demonstrated that GABAergic neurons were indeed the first neurons to die during hypoxia.