Ultrastructural studies on blood-brain barrier dysfunction around cerebral stab wounds, aggravated by acute ethanol...

Ethanol-intoxicated and non-intoxicated albino rats subjected to cerebral stab wounds were injected with Evans blue-labelled albumin (EBA) and horseradish peroxidase (HRP) 24 hours after the injury. The tracers were injected 30 and 2 minutes before perfusion fixation with glutaraldehyde and then prepared for light microscopy and electron microscopy. There was prominent leakage of peroxidase through chains of pinocytotic vesicles and transendothelial channels from blood, through the endothelial cells, into the brain. There was no difference in the way of peroxidase leakage through the endothelial cells between ethanol-intoxicated and control rats, but the area containing leaking blood vessels was greater in intoxicated rats. Furthermore, the number of trans-endothelial channels, vesicles and caveolae per unit length of capillaries and venules was increased in ethanol-intoxicated rats. Injured neurons with a diffuse distribution of peroxidase in their cytoplasm were observed within a greater area around the stab wound in ethanol-intoxicated than in control rats.