Allopurinol preserves cerebral energy metabolism during perinatal hypoxia-ischemia: a 31P NMR study in unanesthetized immature rats.

The effects of high dose allopurinol (ALLOP) pretreatment on the cerebral energy metabolism of unanesthetized 7-day-postnatal rats during exposure to 3 h of cerebral hypoxia-ischemia were serially quantitated using non-invasive 31P NMR spectroscopy. Adenosine triphosphate, integrated over the last 2 h of hypoxia and expressed as a fraction of baseline, was 0.73 +/- 0.16 with ALLOP pretreatment (200 mg/kg s.c.) compared to 0.52 +/- 0.05 for saline pretreatment (P = 0.001). Inorganic phosphate/phosphocreatine (Pi/PCr), integrated over the same time interval, was 2.63 +/- 1.23 relative to baseline with ALLOP versus 5.13 +/- 1.45 for saline-treated pups (P less than 0.0005). We suggest that the neuroprotection achieved with high dose ALLOP pretreatment may be attributed in part to preservation of energy metabolites.