Blood-brain barrier after resuscitation from 10-min clinical death in rats

In rats 10-min clinical death was induced by intrathoracic compression of the cardiac vessel bundle. The animals were sacrificed from 15 min to 7 days after resuscitation. They were decapitated 15 sec after intracarotid injection of mixture of L-[U-14C]glutamic acid and tritiated water. Using by the dual label method the brain uptake index (BUI) and percent of injected dose of amino acid in the cerebral hemisphere were calculated. In 45% of animals an increase of amino acid transfer and rise of BUI revealed the blood-brain barrier (BBB) alterations. The most pronounced changes developed after 120 min and 1 day after resuscitation. The impaired vs. normal BBB state depends probably on uneven recovery of cerebral circulation in individual animals after resuscitation.