Early morphological findings in experimental high pressure neurological syndrome

HPNS (high pressure neurological syndrome) is considered to be reversible condition of the nervous system caused by elevated (atmospheric) pressure. Clinical observations and experimental findings gave rise to the belief that this syndrome at least partly functions as a model of a dopamin dependent psychosis. Morphological alterations during or after HPNS in man and animals have not been reported so far. We treated rats for three hours with an increasing pressure of helium-oxygen mixture up to 61 ATA in a pressure chamber. This pressure was subsequently maintained for one hour and then released to zero within twenty seconds. The rats died within the first three seconds of pressure release due to complete deoxygenation. Brains were immediately removed and either cooled in liquid nitrogen or fixed in formalin. In both instances the central nervous tissue was excellently preserved. In paraffin embedded formalin fixed specimens, dark neurons in different brain regions were found, especially within parts of the dentate gyrus, the CA 4 subfield of the ammons horn, in dopaminergic brainstem nuclei and in some cortical pyramidal cells. In dopaminergic cells, tyrosine hydroxylase was found to be absent in cells transformed into dark neurons. These dark neurons which have long been recognized in neuropathology, probably represent reversibly damaged neurons transformed into the dark configuration by aldehyde fixation. They may correspond to early apoptosis or they may be the consequence of cytoskeletal disruption.