Effects of prostacyclin analogue iloprost on the regional cerebral blood flow in transplanted rat brain tumour

Abstract

We studied the effect of intracarotid administration of prostacyclin analogue iloprost on the regional cerebral blood flow in transplanted rat C6 glioma by the hydrogen clearance method. Iloprost at doses of 0.1 and 0.5 μg/kg/min produced a selective increase of the regional cerebral blood flow in the tumour (17.8 ± 5.6%, p < 0.05 and 27.3 ± 10.3%, p < 0.05, respectively) without significant change of the regional cerebral blood flow in the ipsilateral hemisphere and the systemic arterial pressure. At a dose of 1 μg/kg/min, iloprost produced a significant reduction of a systemic blood pressure, but did not change the regional cerebral blood flow significantly both in the tumour and the ipsilateral hemisphere. These results indicated that brain tumour vessels could respond to iloprost in a different fashion from the normal brain capillaries. The selective action of iloprost to the tumour vessels might contribute to the drug-delivery in malignant brain tumour. Neurol Res 1993; 15: 401-404]