Intracerebral dialysis and the blood-brain barrier

The aim of the study was to evaluate how implantation of a dialysis probe influences the blood-brain barrier. Leakage of endogenous serum albumin was evaluated by Evans blue/albumin staining and by immunohistochemistry. The passage from blood to dialysate of two substances that normally do not pass into the brain, [3H]-inulin and glutamate, was studied 3 and 24 h after insertion of a dialysis probe. Evans blue, given 20 min before rats were killed, was observed around the probe and surrounding brain tissue. Albumin immunoreactivity was seen at considerable distance from the probe with larger spread at 24 h than at 3 h after probe insertion. Glutamate and [3H]inulin were detected in the dialysate with no significant further increase of radioactivity after intracarotid infusion of protamine sulfate that enhances the permeability over the blood-brain barrier. When protamine was followed by infusion of glutamate, the concentrations of taurine increased in the dialysate in four of eight rats. That plasma constituents have access to the brain around the dialysis probe is essential to consider, particularly in studies using substances and drugs that do not pass an intact blood-brain barrier.