Effects of Xenon on In Vitro and In Vivo Models of Neuronal Injury

Background: Xenon, the "inert" gaseous anesthetic, is an antagonist at the N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA)-type glutamate receptor. Because of the pivotal role that NMDA receptors play in neuronal injury, the authors investigated the efficacy of xenon as a neuroprotectant in both in vitro and in vivo paradigms.

Methods: In a mouse neuronal-glial cell coculture, injury was provoked either by NMDA, glutamate, or oxygen deprivation and assessed by the release of lactate dehydrogenase into the culture medium. Increasing concentrations of either xenon or nitrogen (10-75% of an atmosphere) were coadministered and maintained until injury was assessed. In separate in vivo experiments, rats were administered N-methyl-dl-aspartate and killed 3 h later. Injury was quantified by histologic assessment of neuronal degeneration in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus.

Results: Xenon exerted a concentration-dependent protection against neuronal injury provoked by NMDA (IC50 = 19 +/- 6% atm), glutamate (IC50 = 28 +/- 8% atm), and oxygen deprivation (IC50 = 10 +/- 4% atm). Xenon (60% atm) reduced lactate dehydrogenase release to baseline concentrations with oxygen deprivation, whereas xenon (75% atm) reduced lactate dehydrogenase release by 80% with either NMDA- or glutamate-induced injury. In an in vivo brain injury model in rats, xenon exerted a concentration-dependent protective effect (IC50 = 78 +/- 8% atm) and reduced the injury by 45% at the highest xenon concentration tested (75% atm).