Brain regional distribution of physostigmine and its relation to cerebral blood flow following intravenous administration in rats

3H-labeled physostigmine (50 micrograms.kg-1) was administered intravenously to rats, and its concentration in brain tissue and spinal cord was assessed by quantitative autoradiography. Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was measured with iodo-14C-antipyrine autoradiography in control rats and in animals injected i.v. with a dose of physostigmine similar to that used for the distribution studies. Tissue concentration of 3H-physostigmine was correlated with rCBF for 37 brain regions. A high degree of correlation was found at 0.5 min after drug injection, r (correlation coefficient) = 0.87. This association decreased at later times (5 min r = 0.73, 12 min r = 0.24). Structures with high cholinesterase activity (caudate-putamen, amygdala, hippocampus) showed greater retention of physostigmine over time. The highest initial physostigmine concentrations were found in regions lacking a blood-brain barrier (pineal bland, median eminence, choroid plexus) (range = 10.4-23.8 nCi/mg) and the lowest in white matter (corpus callosum, internal capsule, hippocampus commisure, spinal cord dorsal column) (range = 1.2-2.6 nCi/mg). Initial concentrations of the drug in the areas in which physostigmine induced vasodilatation (motor, sensory, temporal and occipital cortex, claustrum, and superior collicullus) were not different from concentrations in areas of comparable basal rCBF in which no such effect was observed. Variations in drug access to brain regions, then, do not explain the topographical variations of the cerebrovascular action of physostigmine.