Increase In Extracellular Glutamate Concentration Research Articles

Intracerebral Human Microdialysis

In vivo microdialysis was introduced in 1982 as a technique to study cerebral neurochemistry in awake, freely moving animals. In small animals, bilateral carotid occlusion produces a 7- to 10-fold increase in extracellular glutamate concentrations. This rapidly falls with reperfusion. Increase in extracellular glutamate is currently believed to be a major factor in initiating neuronal injury. Glutamate antagonists are currently undergoing clinical trials in acute stroke. Human data on the extracellular levels of glutamate and other amino acids in the normal or ischemic brain are limited. In this communication we wish to report the extracellular concentrations of glutamate, serine, glutamine, glycine, taurine, alanine, and gamma-aminobutyric acid, as monitored by in vivo microdialysis, in the simulated ischemic model of the temporal lobe of the human brain. Intracerebral microdialysis was carried out in five patients who underwent resection of the temporal lobe for intractable epilepsy. Surgical excision leads to an acute (from partial to total, ie, from incomplete to complete) ischemic state of the resected brain. This was our model to study the changes in human extracellular fluid during acute focal ischemic conditions. Extracellular glutamate concentrations were 15 to 30 mumol/L in the preischemic samples. This increased to 380.69 +/- 42.14 mumol/L with partial (incomplete) ischemia and reached a peak of 1781.67 +/- 292.34 mumol/L (> 100-fold) with total isolation of the temporal pole (complete ischemia). The levels fell to 394.52 +/- 72.93 mumol/L 20 minutes after resection. Similar trends were observed with the onset of ischemia in the dialysate levels of serine, glutamine, glycine, alanine, taurine, and gamma-aminobutyric acid. Our results show that there is a significant increase in extracellular glutamate and other neurotransmitters with ischemia in the temporal lobe model of the human brain. This increase is of a higher magnitude than that in small animals.

Effect of anoxia on glutamate formation from glutamine in cultured neurons: dependence on neuronal subtype

Synthesis and release of glutamate formed from labeled glutamine were studied in primary cultures of the glutamatergic cerebellar granule cells and of the mainly GABAergic cerebral cortical neurons under anoxic conditions and under normoxic control conditions. Under both control and anoxic conditions cerebellar granule cells synthesized and released glutamate more intensely than cerebral cortical neurons, but this difference was enhanced under anoxic conditions. Thus, under normoxic conditions synthesis of intracellular labeled glutamate from glutamine was twice as high in cerebellar granule cell neurons as in cerebral cortical neurons during 30 min of incubation, but the release of newly synthesized labeled glutamate to the extracellular medium from cerebellar granule cell neurons was more than 4 times higher than the release from cerebral cortical neurons. Under anoxic conditions the release from cerebellar granule cell neurons became 13 times higher than the release from cerebral cortical neurons during 30 min of incubation. Based on these observations it is suggested that a major reason for the increase in extracellular glutamate concentration during brain ischemia may be enhanced production and release of glutamate, especially in glutamatergic neurons.

Mechanisms of anoxia-induced depolarization in brainstem neurons: in vitro current and voltage clamp studies in the adult rat

To determine the mechanisms underlying the depolarization induced by anoxia in brainstem neurons, we studied single neurons in brainstem slices using conventional micro-electrodes and freshly dissociated hypoglossal and vagal cells using patch clamp techniques (whole-cell configuration). Since glutamate concentration increases in the extracellular space during O 2 deprivation, we first tested whether N-methyl- D-aspartate (NMDA) and non-NMDA receptors are involved in this anoxia-induced depolarization. APV, MK-801, CNQX and KYN (NMDA and non-NMDA blockers), which bathed slices after control anoxia runs, did not affect the depolarization trajectory. Decreasing extracellular Na + (Na o +) from 150 mM to 5 mM attenuated markedly and significantly the depolarization observed during anoxia (15–20% of control). The relation between intracellular adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and the anoxia-induced depolarization was also investigated in the slice and in dissociated single brainstem neurons. In the slice, iontophoresis of ATP did not give consistent results. Since we could not ascertain that ATP was actually ionophoresed through high resistance (50–80 MΩ) microelectrodes, we patched single neurons and studied the effect of clamping intracellular ATP levels on the hyperpolarizing holding current ( I H) in the voltage clamp mode. The increase in I H with anoxia (or cyanide) was markedly attenuated in cells patched with pipettes containing ATP. We conclude that in brainstem neurons, the anoxia-induced depolarization: (a) is not a function of an increase in extracellular glutamate concentration; and (b) depends on Na + and ATP-mediated processes.

Neurochemical and histologic characterization of striatal excitotoxic lesions produced by the mitochondrial toxin 3-nitropropionic acid

An impairment of energy metabolism may underlie slow excitotoxic neuronal death in neurodegenerative diseases. We therefore examined the effects of intrastriatal, subacute systemic, or chronic systemic administration of the mitochondrial toxin 3-nitropropionic acid (3-NP) in rats. Following intrastriatal injection 3-NP produced dose-dependent striatal lesions. Neurochemical and histologic evaluation showed that markers of both spiny projection neurons (GABA, substance P, calbindin) and aspiny interneurons (somatostatin, neuropeptide Y, NADPH-diaphorase) were equally affected. Subacute systemic administration of 3-NP produced age-dependent bilateral striatal lesions with a similar neurochemical profile. However, in contrast to the intrastriatal injections, striatal dopaminergic afferent projections were spared. Both freeze-clamp measurements and chemical shift magnetic resonance spectroscopy showed that 3-NP impairs energy metabolism in the striatum in vivo. Microdialysis showed no increase in extracellular glutamate concentrations after systemic administration of 3-NP. The lesions produced by intrastriatal injection or systemic administration of 3-NP were blocked by prior decortication. However, the NMDA antagonist MK-801 did not block the effects of intrastriatal 3-NP, consistent with a non-NMDA excitotoxic mechanism. In contrast to subacute systemic administration of 3-NP, chronic (1 month) administration produced lesions confined to the striatum in which there was relative sparing of NADPH-diaphorase interneurons, consistent with an NMDA excitotoxic process. Chronic administration showed growth-related proliferative changes in dendrites of spiny neurons similar to changes in Huntington's disease (HD). These results are consistent with in vitro studies showing that mild metabolic compromise can selectively activate NMDA receptors while more severe compromise activates both NMDA and non-NMDA receptors. Chronic administration of 3-NP over 1 month produces selective striatal lesions that replicate many of the characteristic histologic and neurochemical features of HD.

Cerebral Vulnerability Is Associated with Selective Increase in Extracellular Glutamate Concentration in Experimental Thiamine Deficiency

Microdialysis in the awake, freely moving rat was used to determine the effect of pyrithiamine-induced thiamine deficiency on the levels of amino acids in the brain. Studies were carried out on (a) presymptomatic animals immediately before the development of behavioral changes and (b) acute symptomatic animals within 6 h following loss of righting reflexes. This latter stage precedes the appearance of histological lesions. The results were compared with pair-fed controls. Dialysis probes were implanted in one vulnerable structure [ventral posterior medial thalamus (VPMT)] and one nonvulnerable area [frontal parietal cortex (FPC)] on the contralateral side. In VPMT of acute symptomatic animals, the glutamate concentration was significantly increased (3.37 +/- 0.64 microM; p < 0.005) compared with control values (0.93 +/- 0.09 microM), whereas in FPC no change in glutamate content was evident. These results suggest that glutamate plays a significant role in the development of central thiamine deficiency lesions. The absence of any increase in glutamate levels in the nonvulnerable FPC suggests that a glutamate-mediated excitotoxic mechanism may be responsible for the selective cerebral vulnerability in thiamine deficiency.

Combined oxygen and glucose deprivation in cortical cell culture: calcium-dependent and calcium-independent mechanisms of neuronal injury

Murine neocortical cell cultures were transiently deprived of both oxygen and glucose, producing widespread neuronal swelling in less than 60 min, followed by neuronal degeneration over the ensuing several hours, despite return to normal medium. Cultured glia (> 95% astrocytes) were irreversibly injured only by oxygen-glucose deprivation exposures exceeding 4-6 hr. Replacing either Na+ or Cl- with impermeant ions blocked acute neuronal swelling but did not prevent delayed neuronal degeneration. While neuronal swelling and death were increased by removing Ca2+ from the exposure medium, combined removal of extracellular Ca2+ together with Na+ or Cl- substitution blocked both acute and delayed injury. If acute swelling was limited by a hyperosmolar medium, then neuronal loss depended on extracellular [Ca2+]. Oxygen-glucose deprivation was associated with a large increase in extracellular glutamate concentration. Both early swelling and later neuronal degeneration were blocked by addition of NMDA receptor antagonists to the exposure medium but not by the AMPA/kainate receptor antagonist 6-cyano-7-dinitroquinoxaline-2,3-dione (CNQX), dihydropyridines nifedipine or nimodipine, or TTX. Oxygen-glucose deprivation induced substantial neuronal uptake of tracer 45Ca2+ from the exposure medium that was reduced by NMDA receptor antagonists and closely paralleled the degree of subsequent neuronal loss. These observations suggest the presence of two distinct components of hypoxic injury, each involving NMDA receptor activation and each capable of leading to neuronal death. Acute swelling is mediated by influx of Na+, Cl-, and water, and is enhanced by removal of extracellular Ca2+. Delayed neuronal degeneration depends on the presence of extracellular Ca2+ and correlates closely with cellular uptake of 45Ca2+.

Striatal protection induced by lesioning the substantia nigra of rats subjected to focal ischemia.

Unilateral 6-hydroxydopamine lesion of the substantia nigra reduced the volume of striatal necrosis and suppressed the increase in extracellular glutamate concentration in the striatum induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion in rats. These results indicate that the dopaminergic nigrostriatal pathway is highly involved in the vulnerability of the striatum to ischemia and suggest that glutamate-dopamine interactions may play a key role in the striatal ischemic insult.

Changes in rat brain extracellular glutamate concentration during seizures induced by systemic picrotoxin or focal bicuculline injection: an in vivo dialysis study with on-line enzymatic detection

An on-line enzymatic assay of dialysis fluid has been used to monitor the extracellular glutamate concentration in the rat hippocampus. Perfusion with artificial cerebrospinal fluid containing a glutamate uptake inhibitor (either dihydrokainate or 4,4′-diisothiocyanatostilbene-2, 2′ disulfonic acid) produced a marked stable increase in glutamate concentration; 10 min perfusion with 100 mM K + produced a transient increase. Sustained epileptiform EEG discharges were induced in the hippocampus by focal injection of bicuculline into the piriform cortex or by systemic injection of picrotoxin. Extracellular glutamate did not change significantly during seizure activity, either in the absence or in the presence of glutamate uptake inhibitors. It is concluded that seizure activity is not necessarily accompanied by an overall increase in extracellular glutamate concentration.