Hypoxic-ischemic tolerance phenomenon observed in neonatal rat brain.
OBJECTIVE
Our purpose was to determine whether hypoxic-ischemic brain damage would be protected against by advance conditioning of the animal with 4 hours of hypoxic exposure.


METHODS
Neonatal rats were exposed on postnatal day 7 to (1) 4 hours of hypoxia with 8% oxygen (preconditioning hypoxic group) or (2) 4 hours of normoxia (sham-preconditioning group). At 24 hours after the conditioning, rats from both groups were exposed to left carotid artery ligation followed by 2 hours of hypoxia (8% oxygen/92% nitrogen). All the rats were killed 1 week after hypoxia-ischemia, and their brains were extracted for histologic study.


RESULTS
Two types of brain damage were histologically observed at 1 week after hypoxia-ischemia in both groups: (1) generalized infarction in the ligated hemisphere and (2) predominant neuronal loss in the hippocampal region. The total incidence of brain damage was significantly decreased in the preconditioning hypoxic group (10/24 rats, 41.7%) compared with the sham-preconditioning hypoxic group (17/22 rats, 77.3%; P < .05).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results show that the hypoxic-ischemic tolerance phenomenon may be induced in the hypoxic-ischemic brain damage model by conditioning the animal before the insult with 4 hours of hypoxic exposure.
Ota
A
A
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Miyazaki Medical College, Kiyotake, Japan.
Ikeda
T
T
Abe
K
K
Sameshima
H
H
Xia
X Y
XY
Xia
Y X
YX
Ikenoue
T
T
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology; D002534:Hypoxia, Brain / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D010100:Oxygen / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar
D010100:Oxygen