Voltametric assessment of brain nitric oxide during heatstroke in rats

Anesthetized rats exposed to a high ambient temperature develop heatstroke with brain ischemia. Since nitric oxide (NO) plays an important role during normothermic ischemia, its cortical and cerebellar production were continuously assessed in pentobarbital anesthetized rats exposed to heat by using differential pulsed voltammetry. After 60 min at thermoneutrality, the rats were submitted to an ambient temperature of 40 degrees C until death. After 60 min in the heat, the rats were injected intraperitoneally with saline, MK801 (1 mg.kg(-1)), an antagonist of N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors, or L-arginine p-nitroanilide (L-ANA; 100 mg.kg(-1)), an inhibitor of NO synthase. Just before death, a 70% increase in NO production was observed in both the cerebellum and the cortex of saline-treated rats. The cortical increase in NO was not modified by MK801 while the NO signal was suppressed by L-ANA.