Assessing chronic brain damage by quantification of regional volumes in postischemic rat brains.
The present study provides data on fresh volumes of 39 anatomically defined brain regions after a 10 min transient forebrain ischemia in the rat. Ischemia was induced by occlusion of the carotid arteries and simultaneous hypotension. After a survival period of 3 months the rats were transcardially perfusion-fixed with Bodian's solution, and the brains processed for paraffin embedding and serially sectioned. The sections were Nissl-stained for delineation of the brain regions. The volume of a brain region was calculated from 8-10 equidistant sections, using the Cavalieri method and corrected for shrinkage of the brain. Fresh volumes were reduced by 27-50% in the layers of the hippocampal CA1 sector, by 40-46% in the substantia nigra, by 19% in the caudate nucleus, by 13% in the subiculum and the cingulate areas 1-3, by 12-14% in the retrosplenial and temporal areas. The results show that determination of fresh volumes is a sensitive method for quantification and localization of ischemic brain damage in the whole brain.
Beck
T
T
Anatomisches Institut, Universität Würzburg, FRG.
Lutz
B
B
Thole
U
U
Wree
A
A
D000818:Animals; D001925:Brain Damage, Chronic / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology*; D005116:Extrapyramidal Tracts / Q000473:pathology*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology*; D002546:Ischemic Attack, Transient / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D016548:Prosencephalon / Q000098:blood supply*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013997:Time Factors