Changes in xanthine and uric acid in rat brain after middle cerebral artery occlusion

Xanthine and uric acid, products of purine metabolism, were measured by reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with electrochemical detection in rat forebrain following focal cerebral ischemia. Focal cerebral ischemia was induced in the rat by permanent occlusion of the left middle cerebral artery (MCA). Sprague-Dawley rats were anesthetized with halothane inhalation and left MCA was occluded via trans-retro-orbital approach. Normal and sham-operated rats were used as control animals. The animals were decapitated 2 (MCA = 5, Sham = 5), 4 (MCA = 7, Sham = 6), 8 (MCA = 5, Sham = 5), and 16 (MCA = 6, Sham = 6) hours or 1 (MCA = 5, Sham = 5), 2 (MCA = 6, Sham = 6), 7 (MCA = 7, Sham = 6), 14 (MCA = 6, Sham = 5), and 28 (MCA = 7, Sham = 5) days after the operation. The brains were removed and divided into right and left hemisphere. Each hemisphere was homogenized and centrifuged. The supernates were filtered with membrane filter. An aliquot of the filtrate was used for measurement of xanthine and uric acid in both of the ischemic and contralateral hemisphere by a HPLC system. In the normal group, xanthine and uric acid in the brain was 12.4 +/- 0.4 and 2.2 +/- 0.1 nmol/g tissue (mean +/- SEM), respectively. In the ischemic hemisphere, xanthine increased up to 57.7 +/- 5.2 nmol/g tissue 2 hours after MCA occlusion and reached a maximum value of 59.42 +/- 4.91 nmol/g tissue 4 hours following the induction of ischemia. Xanthine level was still high 8 hours after ischemia and then rapidly decreased to the normal value at day 2.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)