Quantitative immunocytochemistry (image analysis) of glucose transporters in the normal and postischemic rodent hippocampus.

The bilateral carotid occlusion model and a polyclonal antibody to the carboxyl terminus of the rat brain/human hepatoma glucose transporter were used to examine quantitatively changes in the transporter in gerbil hippocampal microvessels following 6-7.5 min of ischemia. The optical densities of immunocytochemically stained microvessels in the stratum lacunosum-moleculare (SLM) below the CA1 subfield were determined using image analysis of frozen sections from gerbils killed 2 h, 3 days, 6 days, 4 weeks, and 7 weeks after the ischemic episode. Microvessels were sparsely distributed in the stratum oriens, stratum pyramidale, and stratum radiatum. In contrast, the SLM was relatively well vascularized, and this distribution of microvessels persisted following ischemia. The SLM was identifiable based solely on microvessel distribution both in control gerbils and in gerbils that exhibited complete destruction of CA1 pyramidal cells. The abundance of the glucose transporter in SLM microvessels remained constant, suggesting that down-regulation of this protein cannot account for reported declines in brain glucose utilization and cell death following ischemia. Conversely, the presence and metabolic activity of CA1 pyramidal cells do not appear to be determinants of glucose transporter abundance in hippocampal microvessels. The brain/hepatoma glucose transporter was abundant in brain microvessels and the epithelial cells of the choroid plexus of gerbil and rat. Staining of hippocampal neuropil was less intense, poorly localized, and, at the light microscope level, not clearly associated with a particular cell type.