A new applicability of the suppressive Nauta method in the early phase of neuronal damage

A new applicability of the suppressive Nauta impregnation method was tested allowing the detailed mapping of early neuronal damage expressed in the form of somatodendritic argyrophilia. Two spinal cord ischemia-reperfusion models of rabbit and dog, a model of canine global brain ischemia-reperfusion, involving cardiac arrest followed by resuscitation, and a canine spinal cord compression-decompression model were used. Early phases of neuronal damage are characterized by conspicuous somatodendritic argyrophilia permitting an exact evaluation of acute neuronal damage according to soma size, dendritic ramifications and localization of the affected neuronal neuronal pool. By its high sensitivity to somatodendritic damage the suppressive Nauta method appears to be a valuable neuropathological technique.