ABSTRACT
In order to elucidate the metabolic modifications induced in rat brain by low power He-Ne laser irradiation in vivo, the variations in the biogenic amine levels in cortex, striatum and hippocampus were studied. Noradrenaline (NA), dopamine (DA) and serotonin (5-HT) were evaluated by HPLC-EC on irradiated rats, untreated rats (controls) and rats which had undergone restraint stress (stressed). The results obtained on groups of four to eight rats assayed individually showed that irradiation caused a strong increase in 5-HT in striatum and hippocampus, a small but significant decrease in NA in cortex, and DA levels were not significantly affected. Restraint stress per se led to a considerable decrease in 5-HT and DA in striatum and hippocampus, but did not significantly alter the NA levels.
Subject(s)
Biogenic Amines/metabolism , Brain/radiation effects , Stress, Psychological/metabolism , Animals , Brain/metabolism , Cerebral Cortex/metabolism , Cerebral Cortex/radiation effects , Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid , Corpus Striatum/metabolism , Corpus Striatum/radiation effects , Dopamine/metabolism , Hippocampus/metabolism , Hippocampus/radiation effects , Lasers , Male , Norepinephrine/metabolism , Organ Specificity , Rats , Rats, Wistar , Reference Values , Restraint, Physical , Serotonin/metabolismABSTRACT
In order to gain insight into the metabolic modifications induced in rat brain tissues by helium-neon (He-Ne) laser irradiation, in the research described here, we investigated the variations in the activity of the enzymes aspartate transferase (AST, EC 2.6.1.4), both cytosolic and mitochondrial, glutamate dehydrogenase (GIDH, EC 1.4.1.3), and total superoxide dismutase (SOD, EC 1.15.1.1), in the brain of rats treated with a very small dose (1.08 J) of He-Ne laser radiation. The rats were sacrificed 4 h after the treatment. The enzymes were evaluated spectrophotometrically in brain extracts of irradiated animals and also in untreated rats (controls) and rats that underwent simulated treatment (stressed). The data obtained from 5-10 animals assayed individually showed that, in the in toto brain tissues of the irradiated rats compared to the stressed rats, there was a marked increase of total SOD, together with an appreciable decrease of cytosolic AST, and insignificant variations in mitochondrial AST and GIDH. Stress alone caused a considerable decrease of total SOD and small but statistically significant increases of s-AST, m-AST, and GIDH.
Subject(s)
Aspartate Aminotransferases/radiation effects , Brain/radiation effects , Glutamate Dehydrogenase/radiation effects , Lasers , Superoxide Dismutase/radiation effects , Animals , Aspartate Aminotransferases/metabolism , Brain/enzymology , Cytosol/enzymology , Glutamate Dehydrogenase/metabolism , Helium , Mitochondria/enzymology , Neon , Rats , Rats, Inbred Strains , Reference Values , Superoxide Dismutase/metabolismABSTRACT
Our study includes a group of 83 cases operated for pathologies of posterior fossa in the years from 1967 to 1985. The patients were examined according to age, site, pathology and size of the lesions, duration of the operation, amount of removal and use of new technologies. The evaluation of all these data has given us the possibility to study the effects of drugs and anesthesiological techniques used in the different years. We have mainly considered the influence of postoperative complications on the quality of the postoperative outcome. The use of new technologies and of the anesthetic drugs recently introduced, even if it has widened the operative indications to patients with serious pathologies and in critical general conditions, has shown a considerable reduction of intraoperative and postoperative complications of the midline lesions, shortening the postoperative hospitalization and improving the outcome.
