[Cerebral blood flow, metabolism and learning after a cerebral infarction in the rat (author's transl)]

Experimental microembolization of the rat brain has been used as a model for the production of cerebral microinfarction which resulted in a decrease in blood flow and secondary brain edema with changes in the oxidative metabolic pathways. The use of radioactive microspheres as embolizing agents allowed to determine the number of microinfarctions and their localization. In every microinfarct, oedema developed and it could be quantified by measuring the water percentage as soon as the fourth hour following the microembolization. The activity of oxygen-dependent enzymes was severely reduced in the ischemic area around which hyperemia was present. A quick decrease in the ATP and glucose levels and an increase in the lactate levels were observed, showing that the energetic metabolism was deviated towards the anaerobic pathway. On the fifth day following the microembolization, the oedema disappeared. The cellular metabolic activity and the cerebral blood flow almost returned to normal values within the same time. The simultaneously study of an avoidance response in a conditioned learning test showed a correlation between the reappearance of this response and the regression of the oedema.