Rapid decrease in ATP content without recovery phase during glutamate-induced cell death in cultured spinal neurons.

Glutamate neurotoxicity in the cultured neurons from rat spinal cord was evaluated on the basis of endogenous ATP content in the cells. A short exposure of the neurons to glutamate induced an immediate and rapid decrease in ATP content. Then, after removal of glutamate, no recovery of ATP content was observed for 24 h, eventually resulting in neuronal death. These findings suggest that the glutamate-induced neuronal death in vitro is apparently similar to but essentially different from so-called 'delayed' neuronal death in vivo after a brief ischemia in hippocampal CA1 neurons in which a transient recovery of ATP level occurs after its dramatic reduction.