Catecholamine levels and turnover during brain ischemia in the rat.

Unilateral brain ischemia was induced in the rat by injecting radioactive microspheres into the left internal carotid artery. The microspheres were mainly distributed in the left cerebral hemisphere which contained 8 to 10 times more microspheres than the contralateral hemisphere. Embolization caused dopamine (DA) and noradrenaline (NA) depletion only in the left hemisphere. NA levels were already reduced 2 hours after injury while DA was still unaltered after 6 hours. A 30--40% depletion was observed for the two amines after 24 hours. Catecholamine turnover was estimated by measuring the amine depletion after synthesis inhibition with alpha-methyl-p-tyrosine. During the first 2 hours following embolization, DA and NA depletions were slightly increased only in the left hemisphere, indicating an increase in catecholamine efflux. At times 24 hours, an important retardation in amine disappearance after synthesis inhibition was found for DA and NA in the left hemisphere and to a lesser extent for DA in the right hemisphere, suggesting a reduction of the physiological activity of catecholaminergic neurons. These biochemical alterations can be related to the post-stroke behavioural changes of the embolized animals which exhibited an initially increased motor activity followed by a lethargic state.