Dantrolene protects against ischemic, delayed neuronal death in gerbil brain.

The effect was examined of dantrolene, a drug for malignant hyperthermia acting through preventing release of Ca from the ryanodine-type intracellular stores in muscle cells, on ischemic delayed neuronal death in field CA1 of gerbil hippocampus. Dantrolene (1.6 mM in concentration, 3 microliters each in volume), when administered bilaterally in the lateral ventricles 30 min after reperfusion after transient forebrain ischemia for 3 min at 37 degrees C, significantly protected against the neuronal death. It is proposed that the dantrolene-sensitive (most likely, the ryanodine-type) intracellular Ca stores in CA1 pyramidal cells play a pivotal role in the development of ischemic neuronal damage.