Ischemic tolerance and extracellular amino acid concentrations in gerbil hippocampus measured by intracerebral microdialysis

Abstract

Preconditioning of the brain with sublethal ischemia induces tolerance to subsequent longer periods of ischemia. To elucidate the role of excitatory and inhibitory amino acids in the induction of ischemic tolerance, we measured the extracellular concentrations of the amino acids in the gerbil hippocampus with intracerebral microdialysis. Mongolian gerbils were subjected to 3 min of forebrain ischemia 4 days after preconditioning with 2 min of ischemia or sham operation. Microdialysis probes were implanted into the hippocampus before the second ischemia and the amino acid concentrations in the dialysates were measured with HPLC. During and immediately after 3 min of ischemia without preconditioning, the concentrations of glutamate, glycine, γ-aminobutyric acid, and taurine, but not glutamine, increased significantly. The increased amino acid levels rapidly returned to baseline after reperfusion. Preconditioning of the brain did not alter the amount of any amino acid released during and after the second ischemia. The excitotoxic index also unchanged in the preconditioned hippocampus. Thus, the results clearly show that ischemic tolerance is not induced through the alteration of the amounts of excitatory and inhibitory amino acids released during subsequent ischemia.