Abstract
Summary Anoxic-ischaemic neuronal damage was studied by a combined light and electron microscope study of the brains of 4 rats exposed to nitrogen intermittently during a period of 40 min after interruption of blood flow in the right common carotid artery (‘Levine preparation’). The animals were killed by perfusion-fixation with glutaraldehyde after survival of 1 h (measured from the end of exposure to nitrogen). Microvacuolation, the earliest alteration, was abundant in the ipsilateral hippocampi (h1) of two animals. The electron microscope study was restricted to this region. Microvacuoles in paraffin and plastic sections (light microscope) appeared as apparently empty circular spaces (0.16–2.5 μm in diameter) in the cytoplasm. At the ultrastructural level most microvacuoles were seen to be swollen mitochondria retaining their double membranes despite progressive disruption of their internal structure. Dilatations of the tubules, vesicles and cisternae of the endoplasmic reticulum were also observed. There was an associated apparent increase in ribosomes and in cytoplasmic matrix density. The damaged neurones were surrounded by swollen astrocytic processes.
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